Disability & debt

Fotolia_14126269_Subscription_L-300x225A fascinating new report suggests that disabled people are being exploited when it comes to debt and provision of credit..

The Citizen’s Advice report, entitled “Double Disadvantage” claims that the exploitation of disabled people takes many forms, which can include :-

pressure selling techniques
inappropriate and exploitative methods of debt collection
lending at excessive and unfair interest rates to disabled people.

The report urges active application of equality principles to lending, recognizing that disable people have particular difficulties and vulnerabilities and that many rely on benefits which are subject, particularly in the current climate, to being cut or amended at short notice, consequently making financial planning, including the servicing of debts, very difficult . The CAB is well placed to make these suggestions since it was approached by over 70,0000 disabled people last year alone with debt related problems.