IN THIS ISSUE Coronavirus impact Key messages from our DAS and IT team Guest article from Catriona Scott at CARF And much more...
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
IN THIS ISSUE Coronavirus impact Key messages from our DAS and IT team Guest article from Catriona Scott at CARF And much more...
SPRING 2021 CONTENTS Statistics 3 Impact of coronavirus pandemic 5 DAS team updates 7 eDEN system messages 12 DAS case reviews and decisions 14 Guest blog - Catriona Scott from CARF 17 eDEN updates 20 Why are new cases returned for re-work 23 Top Tips from the DAS team 25
SPRING 2021 Quarterly statistics - Quarter 4 2020-21 The latest statistics from AiB were published on 28 May 2021 for the fourth quarter of 2020-21 (January - March 2021). There were 1,043 debt payment programmes (DPPs) under the Debt Arrangement Scheme (DAS) approved in 2020-21 Q4, compared with 820 approved in the same quarter of 2019-20, an increase of 27.2%. A total of 453 DPPs approved under the DAS were completed in 2020-21 Q4 – a 2.7% increase on the same quarter in 2019-20. There were 196 DPPs revoked in 2020-21 Q4 – a 16.2% decrease on the same quarter in 2019-20. In 2020-21 Q4, around £10.2 million was repaid from debtors under the DAS compared with the £9.7 million repaid in 2019-20 Q4, an increase of 5.3%.
SPRING 2021 Ad hoc statistical release AiB also released 2 sets of additional ad hoc statistics outside the regular Scottish Statutory Debt Solutions Statistics release The purpose of this ad-hoc statistics release was to assist all working groups in order to prepare a detailed assessment on any recommendation and the wider impact on all statutory debt solutions. Ad hoc release 1 Ad hoc release 2
Since March 2020, we have all been greatly impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic. The restrictions in particular, have affected all aspects of our daily lives, including how we can continue to provide a DAS advice and payments distribution service for our clients in times when the need for support is at its highest. Temporary measures The DAS Administrator introduced temporary measures during the initial ntroduced a number of tempo lockdown in order to DAS clients and money o support D advisers whilst they adapted to ney advise the new way of working. orking TThese included: ded: d: Understanding nding demand on ad advisers ers ffro from client clie clients nts requ requesting ing pa payment breaks, we published streamlined ed str mlined ne g guidance dance ncce tto simplify plify fy the fy t pro process ce for DAS clients to apply for rocess a payment ent b break variat variation tion themselves n the emselv ms vess Reducing ng th the evidence requirements eme en s as a we e ackno acknowledged k g many any cclients were having difficulty g diff fi ff obtaining y obta ob inin ing things g thing lilike hi gs lik payslips ke paysysl ysslips letters ps orr lette le ffrom their erss fro heir employer Accepting ting e electronic tronic signatures gnataturesess on DA DASAS mandat ma mandates dates off authauthorityy Taking a sym sympathetic view ew in n respe respect pe pe ect ofo rev revocation vocatio tio action and d vari variation applications tions to extend xtend end ddiscretionary diiscretio s cconditions on ry conditi onary nd tions fo for clients impacted or clien cli mpact as a result of the pandemic demic Working with ad advisers sers andndd cre ccreditorss o on FAQ Q doc do documents during the initial lockdowns to share inf information rmatio and working d wo w fflexibly where w ng flex we could. We hope these temporary measures helped you and your clients during these difficult orary measu times.
Crisis Breaks The 2019 DAS Amendment Regulations introduced Short Term Financial Crisis Payment Breaks, known as crisis breaks, where a money adviser can immediately approve a payment break for a period of 1 month, with 2 such crisis breaks being allowed in any 12 month period. As a result of offices closing, with staff working from home, money advisers have struggled to meet with clients and deal with the increased demand for advice. The ability to approve a crisis break has allowed money advisers to offer immediate relief for clients experiencing a crisis, alongg with breathing space to arrange an appointment in order that a full review may ay be undertaken. Over 2700 crisis breaks have been approved eaks hav prove by moneyy advise advisers in the past year (01/04/2020 to 01/04/2021). 1/04/20 Low and Grow w DPDPPs The money advice dvice community munit made nity m maddee us u awaware waare re e of m many clients who tthey believed ny clie would benefitt fro from beingg in a DAS DPPPP but bu could u coul only afford to pay rreduced uld onl instalments towa toward their eir D DPPP in i the short-term th ssh ho e hort-te erm rm m and would and wo w ouldd be able le to increase their contribution with within a spec specified period ed peri perio iod off ti time timm once th their circ circumstances tanc improved. The Low and Grow Process ocess ess was discussed w dis iiscussed scuss d and agagreed ed by tthe DAS RReview Board, which is comprised of representatives ised o present ntat atives frfrom across rom a oss the moneyy adv cros advice, payments distribution and creditor sect sectors. tors. rs GGuidance dance was drafted detailing as draf dr etailing the process, in particular, how the DAS AdAdministrator ist expects r expe xp such uch proposals oposals to be presented to creditors. This guidance ce was pu published on 29/12/20202020 and the process introduced from 11/01/2021. This Low and Grow approach is intended to help clients who are in financial difficulty but where the money adviser believes this to be temporary and a DPP is still the best long-term financial solution for the client. To date (14/05/2021), there have been 6 Low and Grow DPP applications approved.
DAS Team updates Telephone Service When the office of the Accountant in Bankruptcy closed in March 2020, as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, our staff continued working from home. Unfortunately, this meant that for a time, we were unable to receive and return telephone calls so the majority of communication was in writing, by letter or email. The DAS team now have software which allows calls made to our office telephones to redirected to staff working from home so a normal telephone service has resumed. Anyone calling the team are asked to be aware that whilst staff are working from home, there may be some background noise and we appreciate your ongoing support and understanding. Reminder - DPA responsibilities We would like to remind all users of eDEN of their responsibilities under the Data Protection Act and ask that care is taken when entering or uploading personal information on eDEN. Examples include, personal information being included in free text fields, case notes, or uploaded on documents, which have not been marked as ‘AiB Only’ and can be seen by all parties involved in a DPP using eDEN. Advisers and creditors are reminded that the free text information which is entered in the ‘Reason for Variation’ and ‘Supporting Information’ fields on variation applications, will pull through to the variation proposal letters issued. As this is an automated process, the DAS Admin may not necessarily catch and prevent any sensitive information input here being shared. Extreme caution is advised as a reminder to all users.
SPRING 2021 Locked eDEN User Accounts A high volume of enquiries received by the DAS team are from eDEN users who are experiencing difficulties accessing eDEN. These are often due to user accounts being locked. The DAS team usually share the following information with users experiencing difficulties with their account being locked or resetting a password, which we hope you will find helpful. User accounts will lock for the following reasons: When an incorrect password is entered multiple times; If an incorrect password is entered once after an account unlock – see Team Tip When there is more than one instance of the system open at the same time of setting your new password; If a password manager is used and is holding your old password. If your account is locked, resetting your password will not automatically unlock it and you will be required to contact the DAS team to ask for your account to be unlocked. If you are a user for a particular organisation, the person who has ‘Manager’ permissions within your organisation can also unlock your user account.
SPRING 2021 When your account has been unlocked, use the ‘Reset Password’ Team option before trying to log in. This will give you three opportunities to log in. tip If you simply log in after your account has been unlocked, you will only have one attempt to remember your password – and will be locked out again immediately if you enter the password incorrectly. If you are unsure of what your password is this can be reset by: Selecting the .Reset Password link on the login screen; Enter your username and select Request; Close down all windows in your internet browser that contain our system; You will then receive an email with a link to reset your password. If you know what your password is, ensure that there is only one instance of the system open within your internet browser and then try to login with the last password you have set. eDEN User Accounts – Security As detailed in the last edition of the DAS Digest, we would like to remind you that all organisations using eDEN are responsible for monitoring their staff access to the system. Manager permissions are given to nominated individuals within each organisation and allow them to create, approve, maintain and delete user accounts. All eDEN users are required to comply with a Data Protection statement each time they log in to use the system. Individuals are also subject to the terms and conditions of any contract or code of conduct issued by their employer, as well as ensuring compliance with the DAS regulations. The organisation is responsible for ensuring the information retained on eDEN is correct and that it is only relevant staff who have permissions to use the system.
SPRING 2021 If a member of staff leaves, or no longer requires access to the system, the individual within the organisation with manager access to eDEN is responsible for deleting the user account. If they are unable to do so, or if the user account of the individual with manager permissions is to be deleted and these permissions given to someone else, they should contact the DAS Administrator as soon as possible. If you require details of the user within your organisation who has manager permissions, please contact the DAS team. Organisations are encouraged, in terms of GDPR and general good housekeeping, to review their staff access to the system at least on a quarterly basis. Variations – Debt Change Over 9,000 variation applications were lodged from 1 April 2020 to 1 April 2021. Although the vast majority of these were predictably for crisis breaks and payment breaks, the DAS Administrator has noted a substantial increase in variations being made within 3 months of approval to correct debt balances which were incorrectly represented at the start of the DPP. In the first 6 months of 2020 the average number of variations to amend debt balances were 120 per month. In the last 6 months this has averaged almost 250. As the number of DPPs being approved have increased it is expected that the corresponding variations to amend balances will follow suit. However, it has raised concerns given the impact in terms of time and resources on the adviser or creditor in having to submit a variation, and the client being in limbo until the DAS Admin adjudicates almost a month later. The DAS Admin will be looking into this further in terms of gathering information and will be taking forward with relevant advisers. Any comments or ideas on how to address the issues which impact everyone in the process are welcome.
SPRING 2021 Payments Distribution – AiB as PD Update Since the regulations changed in November 2019 to allow AiB to act as Payments Distributor, AiB has been nominated as PD in over 1600 live DAS cases. Almost 75% of the live caseload is where a private money advice organisation acts as the money adviser. Overall the process is working well, with the main challenge getting creditors to engage at the earliest opportunity to provide their banking information. Other challenges are where payments made to creditors are then returned as the debts have been assigned to another creditor without the PD being informed. Payments cannot be made to creditors unless we have: Details of the correct creditor Creditor reference number Creditor BACS information When a DPP is approved and AiB is the PD, we immediately contact the creditors to obtain this information if it is not already confirmed on eDEN. The role of the adviser is key here, as the quicker payments are started, the quicker the DPP will complete for the client. If the adviser and client work together to make sure the information being keyed into eDEN is correct and current, the entire process is expedited. At this juncture creditors are reminded of their obligation under regulation 23(8) of the Debt Arrangement Scheme (Scotland) Regulations 2011, as amended, that if they assign their debt to another organisation they must notify the DAS Administrator immediately. As well as making sure the information is correct on eDEN, it also ensures payment to the right creditor at the right time.
SPRING 2021 eden system messages Money Advisers - Adding creditor details If you are adding a new creditor: 1. Please ensure that the creditor details are not already recorded on the Creditor list. 2. Do not select ‘Email’ as the preferred contact method as if the creditor has not registered to use eDEN, they will not be able to view details of the DAS DPP proposal unless/until they register Money Advisers - Creditor references Please ensure that the creditor reference for debts recorded on eDEN is accurate prior to confirming debt amounts and submitting DPP proposals. If the creditor reference is entered incorrectly, for example, asterisks (*) or the DAS client’s email address, the proposal will be returned for this information to be checked and amended, prior to being resubmitted. Money adviser & Payment Distributors - Uploading letters If you issue a letter regarding a specific case and produce this using your own system, please ensure that a copy is uploaded to eDEN, for example, completion letters. Revocations with draft status We are currently completing housekeeping on eDEN. On 31/8/20 we will be removing all revocation application on draft status that are older than 3 months. Therefore any revocation application with a draft status which was created on or before the 30/5/20 will be deleted. Please submit any application required before the 31/8/20.
SPRING 2021 Money Advisers - Crisis & Payment breaks If money advisers have approved a crisis break for their DAS client and then wish to apply for a subsequent payment break variation, care should be taken not to apply the payment break for months where a crisis break has already been approved. This causes issues on eDEN that require correction and can cause delays. Debt confirmation Reminder to Money Advisers that where you are using a letter, statement or phone call as evidence of debt confirmation please provide the date of the statement used or on which the debt was confirmed by way of a telephone call. Debt confirmation process
In this financial year, there were 45 requests for DAS reviews. Although there is an increase in the number of cases where the original decision was revoked, this was primarily because the reviewing officer was provided with additional information that had not been provided to the DAS administrator at the time of their decision. Fair and reasonable Case 1 Total debt £20,000. DPP term 9 years 4 months. DPP automatically approved as creditors holding over 90% of the total debt accepted or were deemed to have accepted the proposal. One creditor with 4% value of total debt submitted a review, believing their debt (factor fees) was not a debt due in the DPP Reviewing officer noted the factor fees were for a second property The client has committed their full surplus income to the DPP and no expenditure was allocated to future factor fees. Reviewing officer was not satisfied the DPP could be successful and the original decision to approve the DPP was revoked.
SPRING 2021 Case 2 Total debt £400,000. DPP term 9 years 9 months Discretionary condition to realise assets and make a lump sum payment. This was proposed as a Low and Grow DPP application as the client committed to increase payments when Covid restrictions are eased. One creditor, owed 25% of the total debt, objected as they did not consider the repayment term to be fair and reasonable as the client had assets that could be realised and that they would not be repaid in full due to the statutory administration fee charged. DAS Administrator approved the DPP as it was considered fair and reasonable. The creditor submitted a review, stating their reasons as being the same as those given for their initial objection. Reviewing officer considered the information provided by the money adviser in respect of the client’s intention to realise assets, which would reduce the term of the DPP by 3 years. The decision to approve the DPP, with the discretionary condition to realise assets and increase payments, was upheld and the review application was rejected. Revocations Total debt of £45,500. DPP term of 10 years. Creditor applied for revocation as the DAS client had missed 18 payments and failed to maintain payments in respect of a continuing liability. No response received from the client regarding the proposed revocation and missed payments, therefore, the DAS Administrator revoked the DPP. DAS client requested a review, acknowledging they had not made payments for some time due to ill health and hoped to be in a position to resume payments in 3 months’ time. Reviewing officer considered reasons provided and the fact that the DAS client had not contacted their money adviser to advise that they were unwell, seek advice or request a payment break. The decision to reject the DPP was upheld and the review application was rejected.
SPRING 2021 Variations Total debt of £17,500. DPP term of 9 years. Application for payment break variation submitted as DAS client’s income was reduced as a result of the Covid pandemic. Two creditors, owed 61% of the total debt, rejected the payment break as the client had already had two consecutive payment breaks and if the payment break variation was approved they would not receive a payment for 18 months. DAS Administrator rejected the payment break so a full review of client’s circumstance could be undertaken. Money adviser requested a review of the decision to reject the payment break variation application. Reviewing officer noted client’s income had been reduced to nil as a result of not being able to work due to the Covid pandemic and accepted that whilst creditors had not received payments for some time, it was due to circumstances affecting everyone in their industry and prior to the pandemic, no DAS payments had been missed. Money adviser suggested that as lockdown restrictions eased, the client should be in a position to recommence payments to DAS DPP. Reviewing officer overturned the decision to reject the payment break variation, advising that the client must immediately inform his money adviser of any change in circumstances that resulted in a return to work.
Providing Debt Advice during lockdown by Catriona Scott CARF Catriona Scott, money adviser with Citizens Advice & Rights Fife (CARF), has shared her experiences of how a mainly face to face debt advice provider has managed providing an ongoing service throughout the pandemic. At the start of lockdown we, in common with many other organisations, were not fully prepared for home working! However, in a short period of time, we quickly adapted ensuring we had the correct hardware and software to allow all our staff to work from home and continue to support existing and new clients. Remote working with different systems and procedures was a steep learning curve for all of our team, along with the recurring changes to legislation and guidance as a result of the measures implemented to assist with COVID. We now provide a full telephone advice and video conferencing service for our clients. Video conferencing was a completely new service that was introduced to supplement telephone advice and as an alternative to our previous face-to-face meetings. We have also been working with Money Advice Scotland to offer our clients who have online banking, an Affordability Passport. This enables clients to gather their income and expenditure information as well as their Experian credit report in less than ten minutes.
SPRING 2021 We are currently working on an exciting development funded by the Scottish Legal Aid Board to enhance our digital presence by developing an online platform to enable clients to access our service digitally, streamlining our processes which should result in clients seeing Money Advisers at an earlier opportunity. We have also increased our web chat availability to assist client’s with accessing our service. The additional administrative tasks remote working has created whilst obtaining relevant, up to date verification documents from clients has been challenging. We have created a simple “How to” guide explaining how they can provide the required information which has helped. We have continued to successfully progress DAS and Bankruptcy applications throughout the last 12 months although the numbers have been impacted by the forbearance measures in place. Many existing DAS clients made use of the payment and crisis breaks available. We recognise some staff and clients still prefer face to face meetings, and hope this service will shortly be available for those who need it, alongside the other methods detailed above. However, many clients and staff find remote working more flexible, accessible and less restrictive than our previous more formal interview slots that were limited and determined by room availability from our bureaux. I have found that I have significantly reduced incidents of non-attendance at appointments, and am able to provide a more flexible approach to scheduling meetings. Our team does miss the ease of sharing knowledge and team cohesion, but we have monthly Teams meetings and are able to contact each either by phone, email or Teams. We have created a FAQ document and share information via email on a regular basis. There are definitely benefits from home working, no commute, better work life balance, less distractions and ability to listen to the radio station of your choice!
I believe as an organisation we learned to adapt very quickly. What lockdown has reinforced is that one size does not fit all, we have to be as flexible and accessible to our clients in order to provide a holistic service, meaning we have to continue to develop our service delivery and work closely with partnering organisations
SPRING 2021 eDEN updates Eden System Releases A lot has happened since the Winter 2020 edition of the DAS Digest was published. Since then we have had four major releases with various hotfix releases in between, which delivered 277 development tickets (changes or fixes) in total. Not all of these tickets will be listed in the associated release notes as some are relevant to internal users only, but this demonstrates the amount of work that has went into improving the functionality on the system:
SPRING 2021 The next release (2.5) is currently being tested and will be released in May. As usual, a release note will be issued to all users prior to go live but some of the main changes are: Users will be able to select what notifications they receive or not Additional notifications to Money Adviser users Crisis breaks will not be able to be submitted if there is a live payment break Ability for MAs to view and export the creditor organisation list Creditors will be able to view the Personal Application when added at DPP stage PD letters – PD header and footer will be used in completion letters As soon as 2.5 goes live we will start testing 2.6 which focuses on the Authorised Representative functionality. As always any feedback or suggestions about the system are always welcomed. Please contact Nicola Robertson if you would like to discuss any aspect of the system. Document Migration We are also looking at finalising document migration from DASH to eDEN . As part of the work on this we will need to remove access to DASH, however if access to a case or document on DASH is required you can contact the DAS team who will be able to provide the information needed. Once migration is complete DASH will be removed completely.
SPRING 2021 Redistribution Project Work has been ongoing since last year to check and correct the balances of all cases migrated from DASH to eDEN, and this task has now been completed. This has been a mammoth task and a huge achievement. AiB would like to thank everyone who has been involved in this, from the internal team led by Jennifer Seymour, to the PDs for checking the cases and everyone else for their patience while this was being worked on. However, everyone can now be confident that the information on eDEN is accurate and up to date. Need to contact us Case related queries - das@aib.gov.uk or 0300 200 2770 System queries - eDENenquiries@aib.gov.uk
SPRING 2021 Why are new cases returned for re-work The DAS team thought it may be helpful to collate a list of common reasons why new case applications are returned for correction. Money advisers may wish to include the following in their checks prior to submitting applications on eDEN: Incomplete or incorrect information in Debt Screen Debt confirmation hasn’t been done in the last 6 weeks [Note: this is a concession given the current circumstances. It is usually 4 weeks]. ‘Confirmation Requested On’ and ‘Confirmed On’ fields in the debt screen both show as ‘Null’. There are two possible reasons for this: i) the creditor has not signed up to use eDEN (Preferred Contact Method is ‘Post’), and you have carried out the debt confirmation offline. ii) the creditor administers their DAS caseload on eDEN (Preferred Contact Method is ‘Email’ or ‘None’) and they have not responded through the system. If a debt has ‘Null/Null’ in the above fields you must complete the creditor comments field with the creditor’s response (if obtained offline) or details of how you originally obtained the balance (e.g. letter/email dated xxx, phone call dated xxx, statement dated xxx). N.B. a statement balance should only be used as a last resort, where you have tried unsuccessfully to confirm the balance by other methods. Please give details, including dates, of the other methods you have tried.ds)’ or ‘TSB Bank Plc, as appropriate.
SPRING 2021 Full guidance on the debt confirmation process can be found here. Creditor reference numbers missing or incomplete. Balances/reference numbers haven’t been updated to reflect creditor comments. The figure in the ‘Proposal Amount’ field does not match the ‘Debt Amount (Creditor)’ field Incorrect or obsolete creditor names chosen – e.g. ‘Lloyds TSB’ – these are now two separate organisations and you should use ‘Lloyds Banking Group (Lloyds)’ or ‘TSB Bank Plc, as appropriate. Mandate issues Client details on mandate are different from those entered on eDEN (e.g. middle name is missing). Money adviser organisation details not completed. Payment distributor organisation details not completed. Previous mandate(s) not deleted when a new one is uploaded. General Trigger figures have been exceeded but this has not been explained in the MA Declaration section of the application. Discretionary condition is incomplete – e.g. if the client proposes to increase the instalment amount, or pay a lump sum, by a particular time, a specific figure must be stated and a specified timescale given. You should also provide the reasons why the client will be able to make this increase/lump sum payment Potentially sensitive documents uploaded to case but not marked as ‘AiB only’ e.g. payslips, bank statements, phone bills.
SPRING 2021 Top Tips from the DAS team Reminder - Use notes functionality on eDEN cases If you wish to provide additional information in respect of a DAS DPP or want to provide any updates, we would suggest you create a note on eDEN. If the information being added is personal or sensitive and you don’t feel it is appropriate for anyone else to read, other than the DAS Administrator, you can tick the ‘AiB Only’ box when adding the note. Any further information provided will be saved to the case and will allow the DAS Administrator to note this, should we consider taking action on a case, for example, starting revocation action. eDEN user accounts - manager permissions As detailed in the release notes for eDEN Development Release 2.4, eDEN users who have ‘Manager’ permissions can create, approve, unlock and delete user accounts for staff within their organisations who use the eDEN system. If you are unsure who has ‘Manager’ permissions within your organisation, or would like to change or nominate a user to be given these permissions (this will be restricted to one person per organisation), please contact the DAS team. Application - Progress Bar If any sections of the progress bar at the top of the screen on a draft application are red, and you are not sure why, click on the ‘Submit’ button in the menu on the left-hand side of the screen. This will give you more detail on the area(s) needing amendment.
SPRING 2021 Top Tips from the DAS team Selecting Creditors – Organisation List When adding debts to a DPP application on eDEN, please ensure you thoroughly check the Creditor list for already registered creditors, before manually entering creditors details (draft creditor). Creditors on the Organisation list may have confirmed their contact details and stated their preferred contact method, e.g. they may wish to receive proposals by post or may engage with eDEN and receive them electronically. If draft creditors are added, for creditors already on the organisation list, the proposals may not be directed to confirmed address or team to deal with and if they use eDEN, they will not be able to view case using their existing login details. Also, care should be taken when selecting creditors where an organisation has co- brands, for example, store credit cards and catalogues. In most instances, the parent company should be selected, if known, where there is not a specific registered entry for the individual creditor on the Organisation list. If you are in any doubt about which creditor to select, please contact the DAS team.
SPRING 2021 Top Tips from the DAS team Crisis Breaks – Reasons Short Term Financial Crisis Payment Breaks were introduced as part of the 2019 DAS Amendment Regulations. The decision was taken not to include a prescriptive list of what would be considered an acceptable reason for money advisers to approve a crisis break as we would never be able to capture all the circumstances when one may be appropriate. As a result, it was left to the discretion of the money adviser. It is worth noting that we do monitor the reasons crisis breaks are being approved and this is due to the fact that following the introduction of any legislative changes, we are required to review them in order to report on the effectiveness and determine whether further amendment is required or further clarification should be provided. Because of this, entering reasons such as ‘unexpected expenses’ is not helpful and we may seek further clarification on what these unexpected expenses are. As such, we would suggest money advisers give as much information as they can in the Supporting Information field (without sharing what they may consider to be sensitive information) so that it is recorded on the case and so creditors receive an explanation as to why the payment(s) is/are being missed. If you would like to provide newsletter feedback, request content or want to talk about something specific, contact the DAS Administrator or telephone on 0300 200 2770
You can also read