The Money Advice Service

9th July 2012

The Money Advice Service, a government inspired project, took on responsibility for co-ordinating UK debt advice on April 1 st 2012. In broad terms, the wider role of MAS is to raise financial capability throughout the UK. They are currently engaged in building a debt advice model aimed at, “… providing thousands, if not millions more people in debt with consistently high quality advice…”

Recently The Money Advice Service (not to be confused with the well-respected Money Advice Scotland) has been subject to attack from all almost sides, raising concerns about its’ ability to deliver the aims described. Amongst the criticism:

• Chief Executive Tony Hobman saw his £350,000 package criticised by MPs, the FSA chairman, and the media. He has now resigned.
  
• Labour MP George Mudie is reported to have described the Money Advice Service as behaving like a playground bully which is scrambling around to justify its’ budget.
  
• Martin Lewis (of MoneySavingExpert.com) described their web-tools as being “crap” while giving evidence to MPs. The words “embarrassed” and “abominable” also arose in his comments about the tools offered to MAS website visitors.
  
• The Independent described the Money Advice Service website as being “quite breathtaking in the patronising nature of its content”.
  
• Advice UK (an influential support network for free independent advice centres) expressed concern about MAS plans to spend £20m on marketing, stating that the cash might be better spent delivering frontline advice.
  
• A MoneyMarketing (a publication directed at financial advisers) writer has accused MAS of advertising itself falsely as providing “free advice” when “it does nothing of the sort”.
  
• Julian Knight writing in The Independent suggests that “The idea of MAS was to give people a destination to find impartial advice in a financial world that has become warped, but it’s this culture that needs to be addressed”.

Can people that may fall into debt difficulty in the future be reassured that MAS will help to improve the services on offer to them? The breadth of concerns about their operations and priorities is very substantial, indicating a severe lack of general confidence that the organisation will deliver the benefits that it promises (and is tasked with delivering).

It’s not that improving the quality of debt advice in Scotland isn’t an important objective. It very much is. The question however is whether the MAS budget represents money well spent. Would the millions of pounds due to be spent on marketing be better spent funding CAB and/or local authority Money Advisers who deliver free high-quality face-to-face advice every working day? Would the diversion of MAS marketing cash to the OFT and Trading Standards to fund a clampdown on dodgy commercial debt advisers result in better outcomes for the public? Is the efficient delivery of services better left to the experienced private and third sector players that are already established given the questionable delivery track record of government quangos?

The Money Advice Service has much work to do in order to build confidence and demonstrate value.

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