Lots of our tenants have been in touch.  Some need help with Housing Benefit, some with unsecured debt issues.  We are happy to help with both.  At least you can get help with your rent, it's not so easy to get support with a mortgage - the Income Support Mortgage Interest benefit is woefully inadequate.  You are expected to have insurance to cover redundancy and illness but either people don't or it is pretty worthless.

 

Unsecured debt is a major issue for all categories of people.  Bankruptcy is not a great idea if you own your home, as you will eventually have to sell and lose all the equity to your creditors.  I'm not a great fan of IVA's and the minimum monthly payment is out of reach for many people.  I prefer basic debt management with affordable payments.   But debts are passed from one debt collector to another and this enables many to sidestep the Office of Fair Trading guidelines.

 

One of our pensioner tenants has written a heartfelt letter, explaining she cannot pay but is still being harrassed by debt collectors.  She is over 60, not very well and very ashamed.  So we will write to the debt companies and set them straight.  Not much has changed since Dickens' day.