When you come face to face with serious debt problems it puts all the talk and all the chatter into perspective. We are always hearing politicians going on about the banking crisis and the government are prepared to put millions into the system to help out what we were told only a year or two ago were the wealthiest companies in the country.

They talk about helping people in debt but I came across a case recently where I am just left wondering if they really know what they are doing.

I was asked to help out a friend, to sort out their financial paperwork so they could get a handle on just what their situation was. So, we sorted out all the different letters from different debt collection agencies and I was astonished that at the end of it we had about 15 individual piles of paperwork relating to different debts.

Now, it is often said by those who have no financial problems that people cause their own debt problems and to some extent and sometimes this may be true but most times it is caused by a change in circumstances beyond the control of the individual. When all their plans were affected by a significant change in their circumstances. It could happen to any of us.

If you are sitting there feeling smug and saying that it couldn’t happen to you just answer this. If you lost your job and couldn’t find another, and/or became unable to work through ill health and/or you went through a divorce that at best halved your income and investments and at worst left you with next to nothing. How would you cope? It is an all too common scenario.

Now in the particular case I was helping with, this person had been left with debts raised by the ex partner who had never made any attempt to repay those debts and the ex partner has fled the scene, gone into hiding and is nowhere to be found. To add to their problems this person suffers with ill health which leaves them incapable of working at this time.

So what would you do with 15 different debts with constantly increasing charges? In some of these cases the charges are greater than the original debt. This person wants to do the right thing and pay those debts but the charges mean there is never enough money to pay everyone so yet more charges are added, more letters are written and more threats are threatened. It is a nightmare scenario for anybody to find themselves in and one that you would not wish on your worst enemy.

When Northern Rock were struggling the government stepped in and supplied billions to enable them to work through their problems. Why is such a facility denied to ordinary people? Nobody knows exactly how much the government invested in Northern Rock but it was said to be around £1,000 for every man woman and child in the country.

Would it not make sense to have some sort of similar facility available to the relatively few people who do become overwhelmed by their debts, often through no fault of their own and who genuinely want to overcome their difficult situation and pay off their debts? Such a system would help the individual get back on their feet so they can rebuild their confidence and pride and get back to working and supporting themselves.

It would get the banks the cash they are demanding and help stop them wasting time and resources on debts that will never otherwise be repaid.

It would cut the massive cost to the state of having to help support people who cannot afford to feed and house themselves because all their money is drained away by debt collection agencies.

I am reminded of the phrase that is often used when referring to charity work. Give a man a fish and you need to keep feeding him each day. Give a man the tools to fish and he can feed himself for life.

This is similar situation where people who are given support to overcome their debts will go on to contribute to the tax system and feed themselves but those who can never overcome their debts are likely to continue to be a burden on the state. The banks will never get their money and everybody is left unhappy and unsatisfied.

Generally speaking people have pride and do not want handouts. They want support to enable them to look after themselves. To me that seems to be at the heart of what governments should be doing for their people and I feel sure this would also be in the Government’s and in the Bank’s best interests too.

If you or someone you know from England, Scotland or Wales suffering from debt problems they can get free and independent financial advice from The National Debtline on 0808 808 4000

We all know we live in a country where the consumer is supposed to have power and often that is true. We have more and more organic food in our supermarkets because that is where consumers have been spending their money. Yet in many cases your choices are limited and your choices are restricted to a few companies who behave as though they can do whatever they like without caring what consumers want.

The mobile phone industry has developed very fast in the 15 years or so that it has existed but the standard way they operate resricts customers ability to choose. When you take out a new contract you are tied into that service contract subject to the Terms & Conditions.

T-mobile have incensed a lot of their customers by announcing that they are to double and in some cases treble the cost of calls to numbers starting 08 such as the 0845 and 0870 numbers that companies often use these days. These numbers are excluded from the free minutes you are allowed each month and T-Mobile are spinning a story that suggests that Ofcom has brought in guidelines that require this. What OFCOM seem to have been saying was that these numbers should be brought into line with standard charges for national numbers.

As consumers we are used to being ripped off at every opportunity by companies. What we don’t expect is a company that rips us off and then claims it is down to the regulator telling them they are required to do so.

This is just another example of why all these different premium numbers should be banned. There is no good reason for their existance and time and time again we see examples of consumers being fleeced by companies who use them.

There is a website that is very helpful if you want to avoid using 0870 numbers. The website lists alternative ‘normal’ phone numbers for many companies which enables you to call the companies using your free phone minutes or callplan and avoid the excessive charges levied on these calls. The webiste is here…STOP 0870

For T-Mobile customers this might be a good time to look at other mobile phone service providers but remember you may be trapped by the T&C’s of your contract until the period ends.

You may have heard about online surveys where you can get paid for filling in a survey online. You may also have heard that a lot of them appear to be scams whereby they invite you to sign up and charge you for being on their list of potential survey panelists.

As a general point I would always say be very cautious about paying anybody to be given work. There may be justifiable reasons for it but you can be sure that if they are scammers they will want to make some money from you and then very likely not supply you with what you expected, or they may just supply you with information that is freely available online,  or will simply fail to give you  the opportunity to earn anything back at all. So, you may gather I am extremly wary of recommending online surveys as a way to make money though there are some genuine opportunities where you can earn a little cash.

There is one survey company that I can recommend from personal experience.  This is an established company that does NOT ask you for any money. You don’t get paid very much, about 50p per survey, but the surveys usually only take a few minutes and you may feel you are getting a chance to have your say when you hear the survey mentioned on programmes like Newsnight or you see the results in your newspaper.  The surveys can be about political matters or about shopping and brand awareness and if you think you would be interested to know more click on the following link and have a look for yourself….> Online Surveys