Credit Action News Round-up (6 September 2011)

‘Excessive’ debit card surcharges for airline passengers: Airline passengers are paying £265,000 a day in debit card surcharges according to consumer watchdog, Which?. Despite a ruling by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) against charging fees for booking flights with debit cards, airlines are still charging their customers. The OFT proposals were put forward at the end of June, however no government action has yet been taken. Which? calculates that passengers have collectively paid £18m in airline debit card surcharges since the end of June. The watchdog is asking for the government to make the changes: “With most airlines yet to drop these card surcharges, and some introducing new fees, it is time for the government to put a stop to this,” said Richard Lloyd, Which? executive director.

Impending cutbacks threaten Citizens Advice service: The Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) has reported that spending cuts in local government have meant fewer people are able to use the charity’s services. The CAB is currently experiencing its most reduced funding from local authorities which provide nearly half of the funding for CAB offices. On top of this, the charity is now facing cuts to the money it receives to provide legal aid from the Legal Services Commission. Citizens Advice has advised 7% fewer people from April to July than in the same months a year ago. This is due to an average 10% cut in funding in England and Wales since April. Mike Dixon, the assistance chief executive of CAB said: "We are having to cut back on advisers and this means we are cutting back on the number we can see as we operate at pretty much full capacity all the time”.

Hundreds of late teens facing debt difficulties: The Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) has released figures showing that a total of 753 young people aged 18- and 19- years old contacted the charity in 2010 seeking advice for debt related problems. The average amount of unsecured debt for these school-leavers was £2,254. Those with an overdraft owed an average of £671. The main cause of debt problems for this age group was a lack of budgeting; a cause cited by only 5% of clients across all age groups in 2010.

Rising living costs see pensioners return to work: Figures from the Office of National Statistics show that the number of over 65s working has steadily increased over the past few years. The numbers also show that pensioners living with at least one employed person had risen by 0.4% over the last three months. The fact that people are working for longer is “inevitable,” said Ros Altmann, Director General of Saga. “People are living longer and healthier lives than ever before and therefore the option of working longer can be a positive choice”.

Number of workless households fell 0.3% over the past year: According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) the number of households where no adult aged between 16 and 64 is employed has fallen marginally in the past year. Between April and June this year there were 3.88 million such households, said ONS. This represents 18.8% of all households, and shows a fall of 38,000 in the past year. More than two-thirds of the adults deemed ‘economically inactive’ said they were either suffering from illness or disability or that they were retired. The percentage of households where all adults were in work was up 0.5% from a year ago at 53.5%.  

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