Our debt work
It is critical that people have access to debt advice when they need it. The Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) is the largest single funder of free debt advice in England. We work alongside partners across the UK to make debt advice easier and quicker to access, and to improve standards and quality across the sector.
UK Strategy for Financial Wellbeing
The UK Strategy for Financial Wellbeing sets out a goal of two million more people receiving debt advice by 2030.
MaPS helps deliver this by commissioning high quality debt advice through our funded partners in England and by working in strategic partnership with others to deliver the Better Debt Advice pillar of the Strategy.
Learn more about the UK Strategy for Financial Wellbeing.
Debt advice commissioning
We are currently reviewing our strategy for commissioning services.
Quality and continuous improvement
We believe that it is important for people who seek debt advice to have the assurance that both the organisation they access, and the adviser that they engage with, are operating to the highest standards.
Our current focus is to work with partners to make debt advice easier and quicker to access, and to improve standards and quality across the sector. We offer:
- debt advice resources and guidance
- detail on our continuous improvement work in the debt advice sector, and
- access to MaPS resource request for continuous improvement activities.
Learn more about MaPS Raising the standards of debt adviceOpens in a new window
Sector engagement and co-ordination
We aim to improve the customer experience of people in debt while creating efficiencies for the debt advice sector and the organisations they owe money to. We regularly engage with a range of stakeholders including creditors, trade bodies, regulators, government departments and debt organisations to share information and insight, to help shape debt advice.
Key areas of our work include:
- co-ordinating the Debt Advice Steering GroupOpens in a new window (PDF, 388K) and Debt Advice Operational Group
- monitoring and development of the Standard Financial Statement (SFS)Opens in a new window
- creditor engagement.
Service innovation
Working with the debt advice sector, we apply techniques from behavioural change, design innovation and behavioural science to develop services that are user-centred, evidence based and effective. We ensure an appropriate evidence base for all of our debt advice work and develop new perspectives to help us evaluate its impact.
Examples of work include:
- Encouraging debt advice clients to saveOpens in a new window (PDF, 706KB)
- Changing behaviour to provide innovative debt advice servicesOpens in a new window (PDF/A, 4MB)
- Reduce missed debt advice appointments using behavioural science
- Using behavioural science to improve debt adviceOpens in a new window (PDF/A, 3MB)
- Our creditor toolkitOpens in a new window (PDF/A, 3MB)
Research
A strong evidence base is vital in the decision-making process, from the best use of resources to improving service delivery. Use our research to help you shape your operations.
- Better debt adviceOpens in a new window (PDF, 1MB)
- Understanding user needs from face-to-face debt advice services: A co-design approachOpens in a new window (PDF, 727KB)
- Levels of over-indebtedness in the UK – Technical reportOpens in a new window (PDF, 520KB)
- An unavoidable challenge? Repeat Clients in the Debt Advice SectorOpens in a new window (PDF, 978KB)
- The economic impact of debt adviceOpens in a new window (PDF, 2MB)
