Stepchange guidelines 2014

[ilikewatch]

Having always thought that the stepchange guidelines were not available for public consumption I was surprised to see the following publically searchable and available to download as a .pdf :

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j& ... 7l_aUNTG8A

Can anyone confirm if these are correct?

[Foggy]

They look to be the ones -- they do pop up when someone has uploaded them, but not every year

[size5]

I found these new guidelines very interesting to say the least.

The availability of these guidelines, and those of the Common Financial Statement, to the general public is another issue though. I wonder what actual search term or phrase was used to find them, and I also wonder if StepChange know that they are publicly available, and if so will they look to close the loophole?

Regards.

[mole]

You have to laugh, in the introduction they said, " A maintainable budget will place clients in a better position to make regular payments back to creditors".

They then go on to demonstrate an annual RPI increase in almost every expenditure category, but then go on to say that this is not important and no need to adjust the 2013 figures.

Also, I have never understand the clothing allowance, £25 single and £40 couple. Is the second adult expected to wear the other ones clothes?

[urbanfox]

I noticed also Mole that although there is positive inflation on most expenses (7% increase on clothing) they decided not to increase the allowances deeming it not important but fuel costs show a negative inflation (-2.7%) so the maximum limit has been reduced. That's fair???

[ilikewatch]

font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica">quote:<hr height="1" noshade>Originally posted by size5

I wonder what actual search term or phrase was used to find them, and I also wonder if StepChange know that they are publicly available, and if so will they look to close the loophole?

Regards.

Search term on google.co.uk was "stepchange guidelines 2014" (no quotes) this is the 6th result...

[ilikewatch]

Interesting that Stepchange don't protectively mark (or watermark) the document if they don't wish it to be shared publicly.

I'm a civil servant, and if I don't want a document to be shared the first thing I do is mark it restricted or secret etc. depending on sensitivity...

[MikeyM]

Well of course stepchange is funded by the banks so what else would you expect. I wonder whether the people who draw up these things actually licve in the real world.

[FormerlyST1100]

I am in my final year with Stepchange and have found them to be quite amenable to additional costs to those shown in their guide as long as you have evidence to support it.
My fuel costs and car repairs are higher but I could show evidence of my car needing more repairs due to being unreliable and thirsty on fuel to a point that even though I had a wage rise last year they did not increase my payments.

Also they have not hounded me regarding PPI, just left it to me to claim and pay it to them, letting me keep some for car repairs.

[doritos]

The figures are still laughable if you live in London.

Very handy to have though