Debt Advice

This section features reports from work we have specifically supported around debt advice through the Managing Money programme. Reports are shown in order of publication with most recent first.

 

Debt on Teesside: Pathways to Financial Inclusion

Debt on Teesside was a two-year action research project, funded by the Foundation during 2011-13. The project was a partnership between Durham University’s Centre for Social Justice and Community Action, Church Action on Poverty (CAP) and Thrive (a Teesside-based community organisation). The project worked with 24 low income households experiencing unmanageable debt in the Teesside area of North East England. The aims of the project were to:

  • explore the dynamics of household debt (through household-level research interviews and workshops)
  • examine the potential for supporting positive change away from high cost credit towards more
  • financially sustainable alternatives (through a community-based financial mentoring scheme)
  • initiate community action and campaigns on issues related to financial exclusion (through a community organising approach).

To download the full report please click here.

 

Efficiency and client choice in the delivery of free debt advice

The Integrated Debt Advice (IDA) project has been delivered by 17 Citizens Advice Bureaux throughout the North East of England and Cumbria since April 2010. It has pioneered a systematic, integrated and collaborative approach to the delivery of debt advice in a way that responds to client need and choice. By being open to all in the region with a debt problem, the IDA project has enabled thousands more people to gain access to debt advice.

This final project report aims to share organisational learning arising through the delivery of the IDA project during its initial two-year period with Citizens Advice Bureaux regionally and nationally, partners, stakeholders and funders, and to identify the strategic significance of a collaborative and integrated approach to the delivery of debt advice.

 

Insight 2: Borrowing your way out of debt: lessons from a North East debt consolidation programme