An Initiative to Address the Increase in Consumer Debt in the UK
- See also:
- about us
- industry partnerships
- regulation and licences
- careers
- authorised debt settlement
- IVA
The level of unsecured debt in the UK is at an all-time high and is set to continue to rise sharply for the next three to five years. There is an immediate demand from over-indebted individuals for good quality advice and solutions, and a growing demand from lenders for innovative solutions and services to help them recover bad or delinquent debt.
This position has been driven by three significant economic and market factors, and while any change to these factors might effect an improvement in the medium-to-long term, in the short term any sharp swing will give cause to exacerbate the position. The factors in question are as follows:
- An aggressive lending market - making it easy for consumers to acquire credit
- Low interest rates - making large debts affordable to service on a monthly basis
- Rising house prices - encouraging owners to borrow against the future value of their property
While there are areas of the consumer debt market where there are a significant number of existing solutions suppliers (for example consolidation loans, re-mortgages, and debt management plans), there is relatively little to address the needs of individuals who have over-extended to the point of insolvency.
Clear Start focuses on the providing solutions to those with serious debt (over £10,000), and in particular on insolvent cases and those where there is sufficient assets or income to reach a settlement with the creditors.
In Partnership with Agilisys
With around 1,000 staff Agilisys is one of the leading providers of professional services, call centre services and IT services in the UK.
It operates out of main offices in three locations (London, York and Carlisle) and runs five call centres in the UK and Ireland. There is also an offshore facility in Mumbai, India which provides research, development and support services.
Agilisys has particular strengths in Financial Services, with clients such as HBOS and GE Capital, for whom it runs debt recoveries and mortgage advisory operations respectively.
It also has an outstanding record in Local Government, where it takes on large outsourcing contracts and recently it was awarded (working alongside Cumbria County Council) the contract from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to provide Consumer Direct services to the North West of England.
Agilisys supplies Clear Start with all infrastructure, back office processes and IT and telecommunications services. Additionally the multiple staffed call centres (with a combined maximum capacity of over 600 agents) along with the state-of-the-art virtual telephony platform enable Clear Start to scale up quickly to address large debt counselling contracts.
Funding
The initial funding for Clear Start was provided by three founders from netdecisions group
Clear Start does not take fees from the individuals it helps. Ongoing revenues are derived from the solutions it supplies. The solution partners reimburse Clear Start for the services it provides on their behalf, or alternatively creditors reimburse Clear Start from the funds received from any arranged debt settlement such as an IVA.