CIPD urges employers to help workers with debts
Workers in debt should be offered a helping hand by their employer, it has been said.
Workers with financial problems due to debts they have accrued on personal finance options such as and could be offered help from their employer,
it has been suggested.
According to Charles Cotton, performance and reward adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), companies can come to the aid of any members of staff who are struggling with their money - due to issues such as repayments - by formulating and running internal programmes to educate employees.
Mr Cotton stated that the rising cost of living in the UK is being contributed to by factors such as increasing food and fuel prices, meaning that financial issues are likely to affect more people in the near future.
"What the organisation can do is perhaps put in an employee assistance programme - these are helplines for third-party organisations that employees can phone about a number of issues and concerns, including financial ones," he explained.
The CIPD official went on to say that "financial education and advice" from senior managers is important as this could help individuals in their efforts to "reduce their debt or manage their debt more effectively".
These comments came after the publication of a report yesterday (March 28th 2011) by the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS), which revealed that nearly half of all the people the body counselled throughout last year cited a reduction in their income or unemployment as the primary cause of their debt.
As a result, the CCCS warned that this issue may be compounded by the fact that the country's level of inflation is continuing to go up as well as the rate of unemployment, meaning that a growing number of consumers could find themselves encountering financial difficulties in the near future.
