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A week in the life... of a debt advisor
Dan Bebbington, debt advisor at The Wrekin Housing Group, talks us through adjusting to a different way of working during the coronavirus pandemic
Monday
Our team is charged with supporting our customers in their financial well-being matters. At the moment we are expecting financial shocks for households and businesses.
We need to support our customers and at the same time acknowledge that the lives of people within the team have been changed, too. We have moved towards working from home and that brings new challenges: whether that’s the technical elements of remote working, juggling childcare, or from the broader concerns that we all have for our nearest and dearest. I’ve found it difficult to switch off at times.
Tuesday
We made best use of all our resources to support our team in handling queries, and it has been a tough start for those newer members of the team. Not only are we incredibly busy, but we are also dealing with problems that are not ‘business as usual’.
For example, our face-to-face meetings with tenants now have to take place digitally, and some find it difficult to navigate the digital world or simply don’t have the equipment to do it.
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Wednesday
I’ve been trying to keep abreast of the news and anticipating what changes might come. Today, it is not yet clear what approach the creditors are going to take – and we want to be as prepared as possible.
We are doing our utmost to take on board the implications of government updates, as well as the responses from banks and lenders, and to translate those changes into the best possible advice for our tenants. I can’t recall a time at which the debt landscape has been changed so swiftly.
Thursday
We are hearing from a lot of people with existing credit commitments, who in recent times would have been able to manage and now find themselves in a more difficult situation.
Banks are showing forbearance and offering credit limit increases to customers who need support. While this will fix the most immediate problem, it could turn out to be unsustainable and unaffordable going forward.
A lot of our discussions today are around identifying those who might benefit from it most.
Friday
It has been far from a ‘normal’ week for any of us – not like anything we’ve seen before.
Therefore it has been truly rewarding to see the passion and compassion of our people to support customers in managing their finances. We know that early intervention is crucial, as services will be stretched to the limits, so our role has been to help our customers to act swiftly, engage with their creditors, gather information about the options available and review their own spending.
We’ll be back again next week for more of the same.
Do you know an outstanding professional who deserves to be featured? Email jess.mccabe@insidehousing.co.uk with your suggestions
A week in the life series
Our ‘A week in the life’ series features housing professionals talking through what they do in their job on a day-to-day basis.
Find out about the different challenges housing workers in a variety of roles face in a given week.
We aim to feature staff from housing associations, ALMOs, local authorities and more.
Click here to nominate yourself or a colleague for inclusion
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