Debt advisors at StepChange – the UK’s largest debt support charity – are on the front line of the UK’s debt crisis… and they say it’s now a “ticking timebomb” waiting to blow.
“You made the first step today, and that’s the biggest and most important one. You should be proud and we will be here with you and for you, from now on,” says Nicole, a debt advisor at StepChange, who is on the phone with an older woman who has credit card debts of over £1,500 and owes money to her local council.
She had stopped paying her water bill as she simply didn’t have the money.
The woman told Nicole she had been trying to get through to StepChange for the last few days and at one point was 35th in the phone queue. That’s because the cost of living crisis has seen the number of people contacting the charity increase by 17% year on year. During her hour-long call, Nicole’s voice was soft and her tone warm. You could tell she was working hard to offer the caller a sense of security and reassurance – even if she could only do it for the duration of the call.
Nicole, who is based in the charity’s Leeds office, has worked as a debt advisor for the last ten years and currently works taking “first time” callers – so people who have never needed help from the charity before.
She said: “This client I would mark as vulnerable from everything she told me then, you could also tell she was lonely too. She was telling me all about what she had for breakfast this morning and in my experience, you only do things like that when you haven’t had people to speak to.
“You end up saying everything and anything to the next person who listens.”
As the call was coming to an end, the woman repeatedly thanked Nicole for being there and her voice wobbled as she shared how much her words had meant to her. As the phone was put down, Nicole gave a heavy sigh, pushed the hair back from her face and said she believed this client was going to battle these debts for years to come.
She added: “You can’t do this job half-hearted, it is somebody’s life. If you are having a bad day and your tone is off, or you say something that could be misinterpreted that’s the client’s first impression, how are they going to feel about it?
“You have to be wary with your breathing on the phone too if you exhale a little loud or huff, then the client could think you are bored or don’t care. It’s all these little things that you need to manage and be mindful of, and that can be a lot.”
She told The Mirror some days the work can be “incredibly hard” and you need to be “strong and resilient” to get through it.
She said: “To be completely frank, this job has broken me at times because there’s only so much you can take on, but it’s a case of every job can do that. We are well here because we want to help and we know it’s needed, so yes some days are brutal but overall it’s worth it.”
In June, StepChange reported over a quarter of its new calls cited the cost of living as their main reason for debt – which made it the “biggest driver” of debt among its clients.
Nicole said the main difference over the last two years has been the types of debt people are struggling with – she also noted how more middle-income earners were falling into financial difficulty.
She said: “When I started, the debts people were struggling with were things such as credit cards and catalogues, so debts we would class as non-priorities. But now, it’s your staple household bills like energy, rent, and council tax and these are the things we would class as priorities, and what I am seeing more often is that people simply do not have the money to pay what they owe.
“Even after we have helped them budget, it is simply a case of numbers and numbers, there are only so many times you can make it work.”
From her own personal experience, Nicole said the “majority” of calls she takes now feature someone in a “negative budget” – meaning their spending was more than the money they were bringing in.
Nicole said this was “one of the hardest things” to deal with adding: “It can only work if you have money to work with in the first place.”
One client story that “will forever” stay with Nicole was a call from one frightened and panicked mother at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.
She shared: “She was on a prepayment meter and had thousands of pounds of arrears attached to it. She called us because they’d run out of electricity and their provider had refused to give them more emergency assistance so told her she needed to talk to us. But it turns out that her son was on end-of-life care at home and he had an oxygen tank and all sorts of machinery, and she was down to her last £5 on her meter.”
Nicole did everything in her power to help this client telling her exactly what she was entitled to, where she could get extra support and how she could clearly communicate this with her provider.
She added: “Not that it’s not unusual, as I don’t want to sound like I’m being flippant, but that scenario or that circumstance is so common. It’s unbelievable. You know, it’s genuinely unbelievable.
“And I’m just one advisor, there are hundreds of us if we all take around six a day, there are still so many we haven’t been able to answer and try and help because we’ve reached capacity.”
Ray Neal, another one of StepChange’s debt advisors, has been working in the debt industry for the last ten years, spending the last five at the charity.
Just before sitting down with The Mirror, Ray was dealing with a crisis call with a client who was threatening suicide. In this instance, the client had received an email which Ray believed was fraudulent and claimed all of their creditors had come together to take legal action against them.
Ray told the Mirror: “She was distressed and said she couldn’t deal with the debt procedure and she couldn’t engage with it anymore. It was very unsettling and it just added more confusion to the mix but we managed to sort it out. We explained what was going on and how the rest of her debts were being sorted and she came out of it a little more positive.”
In these types of situations, StepChange makes notes of instances on the client’s case reports and provides them with details of mental health charities such as Samaritans or Mind.
Ray says these cases are challenging as they as debt advisors and are not able to offer mental health support or advice these clients “desperately need”.
He added: “Our role is to focus on the money side of things, but we’re sometimes in an impossible situation as we’re not therapists but there is always something else going on and we always need to consider it and be aware of it.”
Both Nicole and Ray agreed that the number of “distressing” callers had risen significantly.
Ray said: “There is a lot of stress and anxiety lately but I feel like people are becoming a lot more desperate. There are people calling us now who genuinely don’t know where their next packet of butter will come from, and more are calling us who never expected to get into debt.
“I’ve had clients tell me that they have been severely triggered and pushed to the edge by enforcement agents and bailiffs, because they’ve received an official county court judgement, and some through things like being unable to pay their phone bill.”
One of the most common debts Stepchange advisors are seeing is Council Tax. Ray explained how unpaid Council Tax can very quickly spiral out of control due to how soon legal action is taken on unpaid debts.
One of Ray’s clients fell into debt with their local council after facing an unexpected vet bill. Ray explained how the council took action within a matter of weeks and the client is now struggling with a debt of around £3,000 they cannot afford owing £1,400 to the council and £1,600 in vet fees.
Mortgages have also become a more common problem, Ray told the Mirror that he recently had a client whose mortgage had risen by almost £400 a month.
He said: “They were in tears to me as they needed to sell the property and downsize, but the sale fell through and now they are struggling with their credit commitments and everyday bills as they face Council Tax arrears and mounting credit card debt from trying everything she could to pay the mortgage.”
Another client Ray had spoken to was struggling to cover the cost of childcare and needed advice on how she could reorganise her working schedule. She told Ray that she had lost her Council Tax support after starting a new job so that bill had become much more expensive. This alongside the rise in her energy costs meant she could no longer afford to pay for a day of care for her children.
Nicole described the current debt crisis as a “ticking time bomb”.
She explained: “It’s here and it’s everywhere and the question now is what is it going to take for the explosion to happen, and I can’t answer that question short of something financially catastrophic, or something that is beyond comprehension.”
Ray agreed, explaining how often, StepChange sees the results of an “economic disaster” later as the majority of people don’t phone them the minute they start to struggle but when it becomes too much.
With the current cost of living crisis, Ray has seen people try to manage by themselves but as things continue to look bleak, with no potential respite around the corner, more people have to reach out.
He added: “We’re not considered an emergency service but we do save lives, there are people out there who give up because of money issues and we can stop that, which is why I take so much pride in the work we do. For better or worse, more people are having to face up to their issues right now and as a result, we are very, very, very busy.”
If you’re experiencing problem debt or are feeling stressed about money, you don’t have to suffer in silence. The sooner you reach out for help and speak to someone about what you’re going through, the sooner you can get your finances back on track.
Contact Stepchange.org for online debt advice 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, or call 0800 138 1111, Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm and Saturday 8am to 4pm.
