External Links:
https://malg.org.uk/resources/malg-mental-health-and-debt-guidelines/
https://malg.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/MALG-Debt-and-Mental-Health-Guidelines-2015.pdf
Summary
The Good Practice Guidelines for helping consumers with mental health conditions and debt awareness is a comprehensive guide for creditors, advisers, and professionals working with consumers experiencing mental health conditions. The third edition of the guidelines provides a clearer focus on how to identify and provide appropriate support for individuals with mental health and financial difficulties.
Find more at our training here
Key Points
- Refer to the Good Practice Guidelines for helping consumers with mental health conditions and debt awareness.
- Cover a wide range of topics, including staff training, referral mechanisms, and procedures when creditors outsource debts.
- Provide guidance on how much evidence is needed, time to collect evidence of mental health, and how to deal with charging for evidence.
- Recommend using a common financial tool and provide guidance on how to treat benefits when assessing disposable income.
- Suggest when to consider ‘writing off’ debts and taking court action as a last resort.
- Ensure successful social policy work to enable future clients to access free evidence from health professionals.
- Adopt a common financial tool in April 2015.
- Consider any guidance that is provided with the common financial tool in terms of the options available to a specific consumer.
- Ensure clarity about the need for workers to recognize the limits of their competence and refer on to specialist colleagues or other agencies as appropriate.
- Carry out training in sufficient depth and at the level or equivalent of Wiseradviser as already provided by the Money Advice Trust (MAT).
- Take advantage of the one-day course offered by MAT in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland at no charge to advisers.
- Amend MAT training to incorporate this latest edition of the guidelines.
Key Guidance Take Aways
- Creditors, advisers, and professionals working with consumers experiencing mental health conditions should refer to the Good Practice Guidelines for helping consumers with mental health conditions and debt awareness.
- The guidelines cover a wide range of topics, including staff training, referral mechanisms, and procedures when creditors outsource debts.
- The guidelines provide guidance on how much evidence is needed, time to collect evidence of mental health, and how to deal with charging for evidence.
- The guidelines recommend using a common financial tool and provide guidance on how to treat benefits when assessing disposable income.
- The guidelines suggest when to consider ‘writing off’ debts and taking court action as a last resort.
- Ensure successful social policy work to enable future clients to access free evidence from health professionals.
- Adopt a common financial tool in April 2015.
- Consider any guidance that is provided with the common financial tool in terms of the options available to a specific consumer.
- Ensure clarity about the need for workers to recognize the limits of their competence and refer on to specialist colleagues or other agencies as appropriate.
- Carry out training in sufficient depth and at the level or equivalent of Wiseradviser as already provided by the Money Advice Trust (MAT).
- Take advantage of the one-day course offered by MAT in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland at no charge to advisers.
- Amend MAT training to incorporate this latest edition of the guidelines.mers where appropriate.
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