27 August 2020
The Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) has announced an open procurement process for funding towards telephone and digital debt advice provision for 2020-21. The initial amount stands at £4 million.
The funding, which will be made available to companies not already in receipt of MaPS mainstream debt advice funding, will be put towards increasing the amount of good quality, free-to-customer debt advice. Additional debt advisers will be recruited and trained in England, following on from a market engagement process that ran in July 2020.
Organisations that fit the eligibility criteria can apply for the funding here.
As coronavirus moves into the next phase, it is expected that there will be more of a requirement for debt advice services. In acknowledgement of this fact, MaPS secured an extra £38 million in June 2020, to spend on assisting providers in delivering advice to more people in England. This is due to the fact that many more people will be facing financial distress as a result of the impact coronavirus has had on the economy, and on life in general. Providers who may have faced disruption in terms of their income streams will also benefit from the additional funding.
There are certain delivery expectations placed on this, so:
• Positions created must be able to function remotely, so individuals can either be home-workers or office based, but with the ability to work from home • The positions must demonstrate the ability to provide a national telephone and digital debt advice service • Advice must be delivered through a combination of both telephone and digital channels
In order to be eligible, organisations must:
• Hold the relevant FCA authorisations to be able to deliver debt advice, and already be an existing debt advice service • Provide free-to-customer debt advice • Hold a MaPS accredited quality standard or hold FCA authorisations for handling client money • Meet existing debt supervision requirements
Back to Contents
Guidance on traineeships: information for employers and education providers updated 2 September 2020 The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, alongside the Department for Education has published guidance on the framework for the delivery of traineeships from 1 September 2020 to 31 July 2021. A further version (version two) will be updated later in September 2020. At the Summer Economic Statement, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced the fact that employers who make new work placement opportunities available may receive an incentive payment, equating to £1,000 per learner, for a maximum of ten learners. Further details will be published within version two of the guidance. We will publish any additional information in News Online as soon as it becomes available. The employer incentive payments will be available for traineeships that start from 1 September 2020 only, and will be available to employers providing traineeship work placements for the first time, and also to those expanding an existing offer to make new opportunities available. The figure will be for £1,000 irrespective of the duration of the work placement, with payment being made upon completion of that placement. Each employer can claim for up to a maximum of ten incentive payments, but further detail around this will be provided in due course. The incentive funding will initially be available from 1 September 2020 to 31 July 2021, and forms part of the Government’s response to coronavirus. This will be until all the funding made available for payments is used. If a decision is made to continue with employer incentive payments outside of these dates then it will be made with HM Treasury as part of the Spending Review process.
The Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals
Payroll: need to know
cipp.org.uk
Page 294 of 590
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker