Current status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 1 October 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it will take to help people with unmanageable consumer debt.
We provide extensive support for money (debt) advice: through the local government settlement; by providing training and consultancy to help advisors deal with more complex cases; by helping fund National Debtline (a UK service) to ensure that advisors are aware of differences between Scotland and the rest of the UK, in particular, the legal side of debt problems (diligence and sequestration), and by funding Citizens Advice Direct, which provides advice by telephone and email rather than the traditional face-to-face model of bureaux, to progressively increase its coverage from its beginnings in Glasgow to the whole of Scotland.
We have announced a specific package of support for home owners in difficulty.