Policy and Government

CAP has responded to Ofgem’s latest consultation on changes to the Standards of Conduct for suppliers in the retail energy market. The consultation looked at various changes to these Standards at Ofgem move to principles based regulation, which presented opportunity to improve consumer protections. CAP strongly supports the introduction of a broad vulnerability principle maintaining the Fairness Test, which provides a consistent benchmark for treating customers fairly and will set accommodating the needs of customers in vulnerable situations at a high level priority. However, there is a need for greater clarity of the term ‘unreasonable detriment’ to ensure that suppliers understand Ofgem’s expectations. To read our full response click below.

On 7 March, CAP Life Skills was officially launched at Westminster. It was a brilliant event, attended by more than 70 guests, including 31 MPs. The launch was hosted by Dame Caroline Spelman MP and featured speeches from Dame Caroline; our CEO, Matt Barlow; and Head of CAP Life Skills, Edward Parker. There are currently 56 CAP Life Skills groups running across the UK, and we expect to see these numbers grow following the official launch.

Click here for highlights from the event.

Back in December 2015, CAP's report The poor pay more: Prepayment meters (PPM) and self-disconnection was released, exploring the shocking level of self-disconnection happening amongst the most vulnerable in our society. A little over a year since the initial report, we have released an update looking at how these issues stand today. Having followed up with 900 CAP clients, we found that the poorest and most vulnerable are still suffering, and that there's still much more to be done to help them. For example, some respondents reported using their heating for only a few days a month, yet typical self-disconnection monitoring processes continue to miss them. The update also examines new research on the number of clients on prepayment meters who reported not having access to the internet at home or in their locality. Considering the demand for energy consumers to be able to connect digitally, this is another significant cause for concern. Click here to read the full report.

Trussell Trust has joined forces with CAP to help those who are in financial crisis. Trussell Trust has the UK’s largest network of food banks, last year giving out 1,109,309 three-day emergency food supplies to people in crisis. Often those struggling to put food on the table are facing issues with their finances, which is why CAP and Trussell Trust hope that this partnership will be beneficial to a large majority of people in crisis.

CAP has responded to the FCA’s most recent consultation about the high-cost credit, a topic of great importance to us. We were pleased that the FCA had set a broad scope for this consultation as we would like to see consumer protection in place across a wider variety of credit products. CAP clients are more likely to have debts from mainstream financial products, such as credit cards and overdrafts, than with payday lenders. It is often these mainstream products, particularly credit cards, where we see problematic levels of interest and charges, and therefore would like to see more consistent intervention to help those experiencing financial difficulty. To read our full response, click on the link below.