Financial Services Bill

Debate between Baroness Clark of Kilwinning and Justin Tomlinson

Monday 23rd April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Justin Tomlinson]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. In previous debates, I focused my anger on the techniques of doorstep lenders, who build up a relationship with the consumer, pop by once a month and, over a cup of tea, suggest items for which they might want to borrow money, trapping them in a lifetime of expensive, high-cost debt. For example, they might pop round at Christmas to ask, “Have you organised your Christmas presents for your children?” The householder says, “No, I’m not sure I can afford it,” to which the lender replies, “No problem. We’re here. We can lend you that. It’s only £3 a week. I’m sure you’re going to be having relatives to visit, so why don’t you get your carpet sorted at the same time.” Those nudge-nudge techniques, which encourage people to take on high-cost debt, need to be looked at.

Amendments 37 and 55 seek to empower consumers, and there are important factors, such as the need to access impartial advice, that need to be looked at. I found through my work as chair of the all-party group on financial education that 91% of people who got into financial difficulty would have made a different decision had they known otherwise. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but through our casework as MPs we see that some people make the wrong decisions and get themselves into difficulty. Of the three ways I would like to see that tackled, one is by the provision of easy access to advice through organisations such as the Consumer Credit Counselling Service, Citizens Advice and the Money Advice Service. To my mind, if a debt management service offers a high-cost loan, it should provide links to those organisations, just as when somebody buys a packet of cigarettes, there is a health warning on it. There is then no excuse. It relies on consumer choice, but if somebody chooses to, they can take up the advice.

It will also help if all consumers have financial education in the first place so that they understand the advice. In the case of the Money Advice Service, one needs to know something about the products in the first place. Obviously, face-to-face advice would be ideal. I would also like all loans to be displayed in pure and simple cash terms, so that every consumer can make an informed decision. I am sure that even Treasury Ministers would struggle to work out what is meant by an APR. I will not embarrass individual MPs by carrying out a test, as I have in previous debates.

Finally, I deal with clause 10. I was interested in the Minister’s comments about advice being given to consumers six months in advance. As we all recognise, that presents a challenge, because if somebody could predict what will happen in six months’ time, they would be very wealthy. The principle is right: we need to protect consumers from sudden changes. The evidence shows that the majority of people who fall into financial difficulties do so because of a change of circumstances such as the loss of a job, a family bereavement or a divorce. One could extend that to a sudden change in the cost of a loan because of the interest rates.

Although this is often derided, I think that we need to encourage a savings culture. If one has money in reserve, one is better equipped to deal with a sudden shock to one’s circumstances. I welcome the moves of the Nationwide building society for first-time buyers, because they are among those most at risk from a change in circumstances owing to a change in their job or in their interest rates, because they extend their borrowing to the absolute limit to get themselves on the housing ladder. Nationwide has introduced a linked savings account into which people have to put regular savings for the six months to a year that they are trying to get their first mortgage. It encourages them to carry on doing so, so that if interest rates and the cost of their loan go up suddenly, they have a financial buffer. More could be done to encourage the industry to promote such products.

[Katy Clark]

It is a pleasure to speak to new clause 12, which I tabled along with many other hon. Members. It would require the Financial Policy Committee to

“carry out and publish a review of the operation of consumer prepayment schemes to consider whether existing protection for consumers is sufficient.”

It would require the report to include

“an analysis of whether consumers of prepayment schemes should be made preferential creditors for the purposes of the distribution of the realised assets…in the event of insolvency.”

I come to this issue as a result of the experiences of my constituents when the Farepak Christmas savings club collapsed on 13 October 2006. Many hon. Members will be well aware of the background to the Farepak issue, which has been raised in this Chamber on a number of occasions. More than five years after the collapse of the company, almost none of the 120,000 people who lost out have received a penny of their money back. Those 120,000 savers lost about £38 million. Some money was distributed as a result of a response fund, which was set up in the lead-up to Christmas 2006, but the people who lost out have not received any money from those who are dealing with Farepak’s assets.

In my constituency, hundreds of families were affected. I pay tribute to my constituents Louise McDaid and Jean McLardy, who, along with many others, set up the Farepak victims committee, which continues to campaign for justice for those who lost out as a result of Farepak’s collapse.