The deregulation of the financial markets in the late eighties generated an availability of credit which led to questions about the lending practices of financial institutions and to a discussion as to what constitutes responsible lending, which is still unresolved today.

Society still retains judgmental attitudes to a problem which effects people from all social classes and which can strike a family for a range of complex reasons. Among these are sickness, loss of employment, industrial injury, family breakdown, reduction of overtime, business failure, multiple debts and irresponsible lending.

The finance industry and the advice sector have a mutual interest in the effective provision of money advice. From the industry’s point of view, it represents a more cost effective process than court action. From the advice agency’s point of view, effective money advice helps achieve objectives in respect of meeting social need and tackling poverty.

This book is intended to be a working handbook for debt advisers, and the content clearly illustrates the complexity of the processes in which advisers have to engage to ensure a successful outcome for their clients, and the considerable range of skills which are deployed by advisers. Both parties can benefit from positive interaction and partnership, and this publication will hopefully encourage a continuing dialogue.

The proposed changes in employment legislation and the increase in the number of employment
related queries to CAB over the last number of years prompted NIACAB to evaluate client’s knowledge
of basic employment rights and the individual circumstances of CAB clients in employment.
This report presents the findings of a survey of CAB clients in Northern Ireland during the month of May
2002. The questionnaire was used to measure employment rights knowledge and the individual
employment circumstances of those who approached CAB with an employment related query during
the period of the monitoring exercise. Clients who came to CAB in May 2002 with an employment
query were asked to complete the questionnaire.

The results from the monitoring exercise show that less than 1% of respondents knew all ten of the
employment rights. In general, knowledge rates were quite low with over 89% of respondents
questioned knowing five or less of the employment rights.

A more worrying trend is that 86% of respondents are not in receipt of one or more of their statutory
employment rights. Only 14% are currently in receipt of all of the basic statutory employment rights on
which they were questioned. Even more disturbing is that when respondents were asked if they had
ever been afraid to demand any of their statutory employment rights, if they felt that these had not
been provided 24% indicated that they had been afraid to do so. A small percentage (4%) stated that
they had actually been dismissed for trying to assert a statutory employment right.
Statutory rights are the basic rights that must be provided for employees by law. It is clear from the
findings of this report that there is a lack of awareness of basic employment rights and that more needs
to be done in terms of raising awareness and enforcing these rights.

A report presenting the CAB evidence in relation to debt and money advice issues in Northern Ireland.

The deregulation of the financial markets in the late 1980’s created a widespread availability
of credit and problems with debt, which are apparent with the statistic that consumer debt
in the UK has doubled to £115 billion - twice the amount in 1987.

CAB in Northern Ireland has been at the leading edge of money advice provision since the
early 1990’s, and the case examples in this report illustrate very clearly the difficulties
encountered by consumers of the financial services industry. These range from inappropriate
and irresponsible lending, through to the harassment of customers when things go wrong.
On the evidence of this report, there is much that the financial services industry could do to
address the results of its own practices, and much that the government could do to ensure
that consumers have more protection at the point when loans are taken out. In particular
government could usefully take a view on what constitutes extortionate credit, and give the
courts power to reopen cases if judges consider that the credit terms in question are
extortionate. In addition, it is clear that the school curriculum should include material on the
whole area of finance and how it is best managed.

Some 49% of the cases represented in this survey involved people who are in employment
across a wide variety of occupations. These include caring, the civil service, nursing, graphic
design, local government, marketing, police and social work, - an illustration of how even
educated and professional people can get into trouble with easy credit. CAB takes no
financial interest in the debt of its clients, and it is clear that the consumers of financial
services in Northern Ireland need the independent, and confidential service which we
provide. This report contains detailed evidence that students, elderly people, and families are
vulnerable to sharp practices and predatory lending as well as unlawful harassment by
creditors. Hopefully the government will look closely at this in the context of the emerging
consumer strategy being brought forward by DETI(NI) and in the context of its commitment
to TSN and the promotion of social inclusion.