The Green Party welcome today’s announcement from the National Debt-line, noting serious problems with debt in Liverpool Riverside. The government advice agency reports over 200 calls from this ward in the last year, and think represents just 17% of those struggling with debt. Most people they say, do not ask for help.
Whilst canvassing in Princes Park local election candidate Dee Combes has spoken to people who are afraid to vote. They fear becoming visible on the Electoral Register places them at risk of pursuit by debt collectors. Princes Park is one of the wards that form the constituency of Liverpool Riverside. Parliamentary candidate Martin Dobson is canvassing the whole of the Riverside constituency and also meets people living in long term poverty who are forced to borrow at high interest rates to pay their rent or bills.
In a joint statement candidates Dee Coombes and Martin Dobson said
“Debt has become a terrifying issue for too many people in Liverpool Riverside. Benefit sanctions, the loss of Disability Living Allowance, and the reduction of Housing Benefit through the Bedroom Tax have tipped people who were already stretching every last penny into debt. The Green Party reject the austerity spending cuts that are forcing people into borrowing just to get by.
Staff losses and the closure of Citizen’s Advice Bureaus have left people feeling desperate. Many people are so afraid of debt collectors that they don’t register to vote. They worry that debt collection agencies will find them through the Electoral Register. However registering to vote by 20th April, and voting on May 7th can help change the policies that created the need for debt.
Everyone should know two things. Firstly when you register to vote you can choose not to have your name on the ‘edited register’. That is the register that debt-collectors and marketing companies use to pursue people for their debts. If you tick the box on the voter registration form asking to be on the ‘closed register’ then your name would only appear on the copy of the electoral register that is held in the Central Library. This makes it less likely debt collectors or anyone else will find you, because of the effort involved in coming to look manually through the lists of thousands of names.
Secondly you can get help and advice from The Money Advice Trust helplines They can help sort out debt, and sometimes get it written off. As Debt-line say – you don’t have to suffer in silence”
Dee Coombes has lived in Princes Park for more than 40 years. She has been involved in many campaigns to protect services and have effective local consultation about changes that affect this community. In the last five years she has campaigned against cuts with Liverpool Socialist Singers, and other groups.
She has worked in residential care, community arts, with homeless people, in co-op development, as a legal representative and campaigner for asylum seekers, and as a specialist adviser in the Citizen’s Advice Bureaux (CAB)
Dee has also done research into Domestic Violence as well as Equalities issues in England and Wales. She served on the committee of Princes Park Housing Co-op for a number of years and was for five years, the Chair of Liverpool Women and Children’s Aid Centre and worked in Citizens advice Bureau in Princes Park, for many years.
Liverpool Riverside and Princes Park have amongst the lowest turnout of voters in the UK. There are local concerns that debt problems are playing a part in peoples reluctance to register and vote.