Displaying items by tag: Christians Against Poverty

Christians Against Poverty (CAP) supports people in debt and poverty. In recent years Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) has emerged and become a popular way of making payments online. Consequently CAP welcomes the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) latest consultation to bring BNPL into its regulatory oversight,and is broadly in agreement with all the FCA’s suggestions for exemption areas Including invoicing, trade credit, employer loans and social housing landlord loans. CAP also wants the FCA to ensure that people are fully informed of the risks of using these products, such as late fees. It welcomes pre-contractual agreements for consumers to sign so that they have more time to think about their decisions. Whilst BNPL products are interest-free, CAP wants the FCA to monitor market changes. If consumers are dependent on BNPL to smooth cash flow when fees or charges are applied it could be harmful.

Three months ago, Christians Against Poverty (CAP), the debt relief charity, launched an online calculator service that over 21,000 have used to check if they are entitled to extra benefits. Over £6m in potential extra annual income has been found that was previously left unclaimed - meaning an extra 2,000 people are likely to see a boost to their household budgets. CAP’s Director of External Affairs said, ‘£15bn every year goes unclaimed in social security and benefits. That's money that you and I pay in our taxes to be there for us when life happens. But that’s currently sat on a desk in Whitehall when it should be in people's pockets.’

Christians Against Poverty (CAP) is a Christian debt help charity which is calling on the Government to 'act now' and increase support for those on low incomes with everything at its disposal. They saw calls to their debt helpline rise by 47% this January compared to last year, and requests for emergency fuel vouchers have doubled. CAP said, ‘We, along with many other charities and think-tanks, say that the upgrading of Social Security (the amount benefits and pensions go up in April) needs to be more than planned. Also they could pause deductions to Universal Credit as they did at the beginning of the pandemic. The third thing needed is a cost of living review; the level of social security has not matched the actual cost of living, even for the barest of essentials, for many, many years.’

Supporters of Christians Against Poverty (CAP) are being warned against scams, with online fraudsters posing as the charity. Anyone receiving an email purportedly from CAP but sent from a free email service, such as Google or Outlook.com, is being urged to be suspicious. Posting on Twitter, CAP said, ‘Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so the saying goes and, it turns out, there are scammers pretending to be CAP. The vast majority of this is happening online. Warning signs to spot you are not dealing with CAP include requests for money in US dollars or references of orphanages.’ The advice also said, ‘We are Christians (with an S) Against Poverty. If it reads Christian Against Poverty - fake! There are loads of us’. CAP charity contributes £32 million to the UK economy annually and anyone who has received anything suspicious is urged to contact Action Fraud, on 0300 123 2040.