Advice NI welcomes the opportunity to respond to the Draft OFT guidance for creditors, debt collectors, law firms and other businesses engaged in recovery of consumer credit debts. Section 1 includes background information on Advice NI and a general overview. Section 2 includes our response to consultation questions within the draft guidance.

Advice NI welcomes the opportunity to respond to the consultation paper on Managing, Borrowing and Dealing with Debt – Call for evidence in support of the Consumer Credit and Personal Insolvency Review.

A review of the voluntary Lending Code was launched in June to ensure it offers consumers up-to-date protection.

The code, which covers personal loans, credit cards and overdrafts, was introduced in November last year when new rules from the Financial Services Authority covering banking came into force.

Advice NI regards the lending Code as a pivotal tool within the Advice NI membership, as it outlines recommended creditor good practice, and is routinely used by advisers either as part of their negotiations on behalf of customers or as a self-help tool to empower people in resolving their own debt problems. It is also a helpful tool for advisers when communicating with the Financial Ombudsman Service.

However from the experience of advisers some subscribers do not put the Code’s requirements into practice, particularly in relation to section 9 of the lending code which looks at dealing with customers in financial difficulty.  Given the current economic climate the need to improve the practice lending code has never been greater.

A revised code will be published in March 2011 following the review.

The Utility Regulator recently published a new report Research on Helping Customers to Avoid Debt and Manage Their Way Out of Debt, which is the product of an extensive research project on the subject of energy customer debt in Northern Ireland. The report outlines the findings from the research and makes recommendations for a code of practice for energy suppliers on dealing with customer debt and helping customers to avoid debt or manage their way out of debt.

The report has been independently produced by Social Market Research in partnership with the Social Research Centre and Advice NI. Please note that the recommendations contained within the report represent the views of the Social Market Research and are not necessarily those of the Utility Regulator.

Details on the background and next steps to this research.

Advice NI response to the NI Assembly call for evidence on the Welfare Reform Bill 2010

Affordable Homes: Impacts of restricted access to affordable housing across tenure groups

Advice NI response to the Northern Ireland Legal Services Commission (NILSC) consultation on

(1) guidance in respect of the principles of merits, costs and damages

(2) guidance in respect of judicial review proceedings

(3) guidance in respect of public law children’s cases

January 2007

Response to NILSC Consultation: Exposure Document - Developing a Registration Scheme June 2006

Response to NILSC Consultation: Delivering Access to Justice Through Publicly Funded Legal Services

The Advice Services Alliance(ASA)is made up of representatives of Advice NI, Citizens Advice and the Law Centre for Northern Ireland. Each of these organisations also responded to the Department for Social Development's Strategy on Advice and Information on an individual
basis. This document is the response made by the Advice Services Alliance.

Advice NI response to DSD consultation document
‘A Strategy for Supporting Delivery of Voluntary Advice Services to the
Community’

AIAC understands that the existing infrastructure for water and sewerage services for Northern Ireland needs to be addressed.