Policy and research

We want the Government to ensure that no one is left struggling as the cost of living increases.

We want the UK to be a place where debt collection does not push people further into hardship. We work to present evidence and shape policies that protect people living in vulnerable circumstances.

We’re working to see social security provided at adequate levels, where caps and sanctions don’t push people into destitution and for processes to work for all.

We believe having a warm, lit home is a basic human right. Our policy work feeds into the design of financial support schemes and the prevention of disconnection from utilities. 

Our work in financial services aims to identify where harm is being caused, where regulation is needed to ensure good outcomes for all. 

As the landscape of debt solutions evolve and change, we want to make sure insolvency remains the fresh start it was designed to be. 

Debt Relief Orders (DROs) were introduced in 2009 as a form of insolvency for people on low incomes who could not afford to go through bankruptcy. However, the eligibility criteria was not fit for purpose, and was preventing many low income people from accessing this very needed debt solution. In 2014, reforms to DROs were brought in which were a step in the right direction, but did not go far enough. 

Throughout 2020 and 2021, CAP, alongside other debt advice organisations, fought for this issue to be addressed by the Government. In February 2021, we published a report, Simplify the Solution, that provided research into how DROs were preventing people accessing debt relief.

In late 2021, we were thrilled to see the eligibility criteria for DROs widened! Since the eligibility criteria changed, tens of thousands of people have now been able to access a Debt Relief Order who otherwise wouldn’t have been eligible. But fees to access this solution were still acting as a barrier.

In the Chancellor’s 2024 Spring Budget, it was announced that the £90 fee was going to be removed. This meant that CAP clients would be able to become debt free much sooner, without having to wait months to save up to pay for the fee. Perhaps even more meaningful, was the decision to increase the eligibility criteria further (to the level CAP had been calling for in Simplify the Solution), which included increasing the debt value threshold and the vehicle asset limit. This great win shows that change is possible, but can often take years. Thank you to our supporters who joined us calling for this change over the years.

A prepayment meter is a type of domestic energy meter that lets people pay for energy before they use it. Millions of households use prepayment meters, and typically these households are more likely to be living on a low income. Up until 2023, the cost of energy for those with a prepayment was higher than those who paid for their energy on a credit meter.

For many years CAP campaigned to see this change, in 2015 we released a report called The poor pay more. After many years of advocating, presenting evidence and calling for change, we were happy to see the Government announced it would bring prepayment meter costs in line with direct debit in 2023.

In certain circumstances, the Department for Work and Pensions can deduct money from a claimant’s benefit payments and pay it to a creditor or supplier to clear a debt. When Universal Credit was introduced the maximum amount that could be deducted was set at 40%, leaving people struggling to make ends meet and pushing people deeper into poverty.

We proved the huge impact this was having on low income households with our report Powerless People. We found almost half (49%) of CAP clients had owed money to the DWP, HMRC or their local authority and those clients were more likely to be on a low income and vulnerable.

We relentlessly called on the Government to make changes. In 2021, the Government took notice of our evidence and reduced the debt deduction rate to 25%.However, for many of CAP’s clients and people on low incomes, still having as much as one quarter of their income deducted at source was leaving many households in hardship. CAP continued to call for changes to the level of debt deductions and then in October 2024 the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, announced that debt deductions would be reduced to 15%.