Policy and Government

Today Christians Against Poverty (CAP) has launched the findings of London School of Economics (LSE) Housing and Communities' twelve-month research project detailing CAP’s Social Return of Investment. LSE’s research concludes that CAP’s approach is more intensive, personal and holistic than most approaches to poverty relief. For every £1 invested, CAP delivers £3.60 of social benefits. Read the full report and summary report here.

CAP has responded to the FCA’s consultation on overdrafts, as part of their wider high-cost credit review. We welcome the focus on overdrafts, as this is an area of harm for many of CAP’s clients. The draft rules propose to reduce harm through building awareness and engagement in the market. We welcomed the ideas of online eligibility tools and charges calculators, but were concerned that this would not help those digitally excluded. We also fed into how the FCA plan to tackle complex pricing structures and high fees and charges. To read more, click below. 

CAP has responded to the FCA’s latest consultation part of their high-cost credit review. In this consultation we welcomed the broad scope for the review across the high-cost, short-term credit (HCSTC) market, helping to bring consistency across these credit products. We felt that many of the proposed remedies were proportionate and appropriate, but did have concerns that some may be challenging to operationalise in practice. See our full response below.

CAP has responded to MAS’ consultation about building financial capability skills in the working-age population. CAP welcomes the strategic move to increase the provision of money management education, helping to build resilience and develop healthy financial habits. In particular, CAP welcomed the initiative to build money management education into the services, interventions and pathways that already exist. To read the full response, please click below. 

Our latest briefing paper highlights the issues we are seeing with public sector debt collection. Almost half (49%) of CAP clients have owed money to the DWP, HMRC or their local authority and these clients are more likely to be on a low income and vulnerable. We have found that public sector debt collection processes create fear, leave clients feeling powerless and render debts unmanageable. CAP is calling for three key principles to help change this: time, flexibility and consistency. To read more, click here.