• 124 mortgaged properties per day are taken into possession by first mortgage lenders (double the figure of 12 months ago)
• 2,370 county court judgments (CCJs) for consumer debts are issued per day
• Over 300 people per day are declared bankrupt or enter into an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA)
• CAB are dealing with 6,600 debt problems per day.
• Callers to the free debt solutions provider Payplan with worries about paying their mortgage have, on average £40,000 worth of unsecured credit to 7 creditors.

• Gain an awareness of how debt advice provides a structured, holistic approach to the management of personal, multiple debt.
• Be able to describe the four essential elements of debt advice
• Gain an understanding of the effects of long term and serious debt problems on customers and how to treat customers fairly, sensitively and successfully in this context.
• Be able to distinguish between priority and non-priority debts and understand how debt advice encourages planned redistribution of customer income from consumer credit debts to mortgage payments.
• Gain an awareness of appropriate strategies for both priority and non-priority debts.
• Gain a working knowledge of a wide range of mortgage debt solutions.
• Gain an understanding of how recent government initiatives may be accessed successfully e.g. Homeowners’ Mortgage Support and Mortgage Rescue Scheme.
• Gain an awareness of income maximization possibilities available to customers including Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) via certain welfare benefits.
• Gain an awareness of the impact of bankruptcy and IVAs (individual voluntary arrangements) on both live mortgages and mortgage shortfalls.
• Be provided with further sources of free and effective help and advice which is available for customers in multiple debt.

• "Well presented and easy to listen to"
• "informative, excellent use of multi media and handouts, enjoyable content"
• "extremely helpful, has really made me feel more confident”

• management
• mortgage lending staff
• arrears collection staff

• 60% of homeowners who would be eligible for some Council Tax Benefit fail to make a claim.
• 35% of people aged over 60 (many of whom have mortgages) eligible for Pension Credit fail to claim.
• 85% of parents (up to an income of £66,000 per year) qualify for Child Tax Credit but many people don’t claim through ignorance or other reasons.

This course provides an essential guide to mortgage arrears staff to help ensure that customers in arrears don’t miss out on money to which they’re entitled through ignorance, misinformation or confusion. It provides the information toolkit necessary to help maximise their income in order to reduce or eliminate arrears. The course is highly interactive with plenty of opportunity for participants to test their existing and new found knowledge. A Plain English, user-friendly handbook is provided along with copies of the most relevant and useful DWP and HM Revenue & Customs leaflets.

• be able to broadly assess which benefits and tax credits may be available to a particular family or individual according to their circumstances
• gain an awareness of the individual benefits and tax credits available and basic qualifying conditions
• gain an understanding of the structure of the benefits/tax credit system, which benefits can be claimed together and how claiming one benefit can sometimes open the door to another
• be able to distinguish between means-tested and non means-tested benefits, and contribution based and non-contribution based benefits
• gain an awareness of how, when and where different benefits and tax credits can be claimed
• gain a detailed knowledge of how homeowners can get DWP assistance with mortgage payments
• gain a working knowledge of child tax credit, working tax credit, income support, jobseeker's allowance, pension credit and council tax benefit
• gain an awareness of the qualifying rules for disability living allowance, attendance allowance, statutory sick pay, incapacity benefit and the new employment and support allowance
• be provided with further sources of free and effective help and advice

• "Excellent presentation skills, made me feel at ease which helped me to contribute to the course"
• "Knowledgeable, interesting workshop with good information offered and excellent handouts"
• "Very knowledgeable. Enjoyable, good handouts"

• management
• mortgage lending staff 
• arrears collection staff