A piece of 'art' in the form of a collage from me with memories and the evolution of my media work - two years of radio hosting to podcasting. Initially, my shows were funded by  MoneyHelper  (Money Advice and Pension Service) and Toynbee Hall, supported by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and then by Money A+E and City  Hackney Carers Centre . Not bad indeed. After all, I am from near Shoreditch, once and still is a ghetto of the East End of London. 🙂

In this month’s episode on the Debt Talk podcast, Ripon Ray explored: ‘ Debt advice, MaPS and advisers’ . During the pandemic, free debt advice charities noticed a demand for debt advice. This demand had substantially increased during the cost of living crisis due to high inflation and people’s income not increasing simultaneously. Many debt advisors left the sector in droves to join other sectors, such as the National Health Service or local council. Their move from the industry was mainly connected to high-stress levels, targets and heavy audits. Save Debt Advice Campaign was launched to respond to the impact in the debt advice sector. Tanis Belsham Wray , a former debt adviser shared her experience at Step Change during the pandemic high volumes of cases were unresolvable due to clients having a deficit budget and complex priority debt related. After returning from maternity. she fainted twice due to stress whilst giving advice. Tamra Mannin - Co - CEO of Talking Money, an advice...

On 13 March 2023 Unite the trade union organised a campaign against the cuts on debt advice services in the United Kingdom and highlighted the impact on debt advisers under a number of advice agencies under the the Money Advice & Pension Service contract. Advisers have also left debt advice work in droves due to stress and high targets. In this video, you can hear from two former debt advisers, who gave up working for various advice agencies because of pressure and targets. Tanis Belsham-Wray , a former debt adviser, left debt advice work due to stress related to auditing, and pay conditions under the contract especially when she became a mother. Nick Webster , another former debt adviser, suffered from mental health breakdown and was in therapy due to stress at work. Mike Brown , a cancer patient in debt, reminds us of the importance of debt advice work.

  Money Advice & Pension Service, one of the leading funders of debt advice and pension guidance in the UK, listened to debt experts from a variety of minority-led service providers and debt experts to understand the interlink between poverty and mental health within minority communities.  Ripon Ray was able to share his knowledge as a debt expert from the perspective of the Bangladeshi community in Britain based on his expert knowledge of debt advice and campaign work he carried out during the pandemic under the umbrella of BritBanglaCovid. There is a broad range of issues that impacted minority communities and some of the recommendations outlined by MaPS is welcome.  The challenge would be to implement the recommendations of the report for the benefit of minority communities since the pandemic exposed structural inequality in health and other spheres of minority life.

For a number of people, switching suppliers is not an easy task - the fear of changing can be very daunting,  not knowing where to research online, going through all the deals that are available and whether these deals are worthy of switching.  This week I asked Angela Dietrich, a pensioner from East London, who had serious issues with her former fuel supplier, Npower, when she was thinking of switching. I asked: 'How did you manage to switch your supplier?'. You can find her answer on Your Money Matters show! She also talked about how she was supported by local advice agencies, such as Toynbee Hall and Bromley-By-Bow Centre (BBBC), in order for her to get heard against a very big company, Npower, and to make a complaint against the company. According to the Money Advice & Pension Service, in order to switch, you should always check Compare gas and electricity tariffs accredited by Ofgem price comparison sites.