Hard-up Britons are too poor for charity to help

A record number of people contacted a debt charity last year but about 160,000 of them were so poor they could not be helped.

The Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) said about one in three people it dealt with had no immediate debt solution.

It claimed these people did not have enough income to enter into a repayment plan, nor did they qualify for any type of insolvency, including bankruptcy.

Its only advice was to tell them to find a way of increasing their income – by taking in a lodger, working longer hours or checking they were claiming all the benefits to which they were entitled.

The CCCS said its helpline received 335,323 calls during the year, 25 per cent more than in 2008. A further 150,000 people also sought help online, nearly two-thirds more than a year earlier and double the number for 2007.

But the charity said only a quarter of the people who came to it for help had the means to go on to a debt repayment plan or take out an Individual Voluntary Arrangement, under which regular repayments are made to creditors.

source: metro.co.uk