In this episode on the Debt Talk podcast, Ripon Ray explored the link between mental health and debt and how being in debt can worsen your mental health. Minara Meghna Uddin shared her experience of domestic and economic abuse, which impacted her mental health where seeking to go for support and speaking out was not an option. Whilst coming out of her marriage with children to look after and the anxiety of getting letters from debt collectors and visits from bailiffs. After having made several visits by a bailiff, he encouraged her to represent herself to go to court to deal with her debts. Dr Thomas Richardson from the University of Southampton, spoke about how he lives with bipolar disorder. In his research work as an academic, he explored developing work for communities struggling with mental health and debt. He highlighted different types of mental health treatment available and how poverty makes it hard to overcome some of the strains in life. Steven Coppard FCICM of Ar...

As debt advisers spoke about the challenges faced in the debt advice sector under the contract of Money Advice Services, Ripon Ray shared a new way to learn about the sector after the pandemic. Nearly 90 debt advisers attended today's Institute  of Money Advisers Group Meeting as Debt Talk was introduced to the agenda.  Debt advisers accepted a new 'norm' and that is: face to face only learning to meet their regulatory obligation is no longer an option. During such an  occasion,  Ripon Ray introduced Debt Talk podcasts to debt advisers: learn about the debt sector in your own time through podcasts. Debt Talk was designed to bring experiences of debt clients in the public domain since many of these clients bring a broad range of issues to debt advisers which include mental health, addiction, multiple debts and cost of living - to just name a few things. Along with Debt Talk, Ripon Ray spoke about a monthly Debt News which would bring snippets of debt related...

‘I am thinking of getting my pension funds released to pay for my rent arrears - do you think my landlord will stop possession proceedings if I pay it all off once I get the funds?’ This is what one of my clients said to me when he first came to seek advice for his rent arrears. It was in September 2016. He was 56 years old but would not be eligible for the state pension for another decade. What struck me about him was his proposal to unlock his pension funds to pay for his rent arrears. It made me think about men in his age group, how they lived and how severe their financial and other problems can be and the challenges they face trying to rectify it. These are problems that, as things stand, will persist until their retirement age. As I dug deeper into this gentleman’s personal circumstances, I discovered how he had fallen into poverty. His life was thrown into chaos once he was faced with early retirement. He previously worked for a local council and his role wa...

It’s a well-known fact that individuals who suffer from a hampered mental capacity - be it mental health or learning difficulties - are most likely to be vulnerable in our communities. They are also more likely to be victims of miss-sold products and services by companies, even though organisations that are providing financial products and services have a duty under the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to take extra care towards these individuals. This is what the FCA has to say about vulnerable customers: ‘  The vulnerability of the customer, in particular where the firm understands the customer has some form of mental capacity limitation or reasonably suspects this to be so because the customer displays indications of some form of mental capacity limitation  (see  ■  CONC 2.10) But due to a culture of intensive selling to consumers, generated by employers placing and enforcing - often difficult and unrealistic - performance goals wh...