Debt advisers want money from lenders

A FRESH attempt is being made to beef up debt-counselling services by raising money from lenders.

Several lenders are in discussions with debt advisers about a pilot scheme where the lenders would pay a proportion of money recovered through counselling to the money advice services. The scheme would be modelled on ones already operating throughout the United States. Typically, lenders agree to pay out 15 per cent of what they recover after a counsellor has helped a debtor to reschedule debts.

The architects of the scheme in Britain are Malcolm Hurlston, chairman of Registry Trust, the organisation that runs the register of county court debt judgements, and Vic Ware, managing director of the finance house GE Capital.

Mr Hurlston believes that it could raise up to pounds 10m a year for hard-pressed British money advice services.