About us

In this section you can find out more about the charity's objectives, trustees and history.

Debt Advice Foundation is a debt advice and education charity registered in England and Wales (1095705) that was established in 2002. Our mission is to help the growing number of people who find themselves with unmanageable debts. We do this in a number of different ways including one-to-one advice and education initiatives.

The charity is a member of AdviceUK, the UK's largest support network for free, independent advice centres and all of the charity's advisors are associate members of the Institute of Money Advisors, a charitable body that aims to promote free money advice and develop professional standards. It is also a registered supporter of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Financial Education for Young People and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Debt and Personal Finance.

The charity has developed a range of education guides aimed at schoolchildren and has opened the UK’s first dedicated Money Education Centre. The books have all been awarded the PFEG quality mark and the centre, which offers free financial capability classes to local schoolchildren has been awarded the PFEG Centre of Excellence accreditation.

Debt Advice Foundation is licensed under the Consumer Credit Act 1974. The charity's Consumer Credit License Number is 0628156.

Who We Are

You can find out more about the charity's key people and Trustees in our who we are section.

Our Core Objectives

At the heart of the charity’s philosophy is the prevention and cure of consumer debt problems in the UK.

Whilst our primary focus is on helping those that are in need of advice and support today, we strongly believe that improving financial literacy amongst the next generation is key to tackling increasing levels of unmanageable consumer debt in the UK.

The following summarises Debt Advice Foundation’s core objectives:

• Provide free, impartial and appropriate debt advice to people with unaffordable debt.
• Help people with debt problems to gain free access to solutions that will help them.
• Promote the education of young people in money management so as to reduce the likelihood they will misuse debt later in their lives.
• Undertake or fund research to understand why problem debt happens and its effect on individuals, families and the wider UK economy.
• Use this evidence to become a force for beneficial change within the credit and debt solutions industry and to work with government to bring about legislative change to benefit UK consumers.

A full breakdown of our objectives, as registered with the Charity Commission can be found here.

Ethical Debt Advice Framework

In this section you can find out more about Debt Advice Foundation's blueprint for ethical advice and sustainable solutions. The charity is campaigning to have this framework widely adopted throughout the debt advice industry so that instances of inappropriate advice can be reduced.

History

You can find out more about the history of the charity in the history section.

FAQs

In this section you'll find answers to frequently asked questions about the charity.

In the News

We are regularly asked by the media to comment on consumer debt and debt problems. The links below show some of the recent media coverage we have received.

	Which? Online features Debt Advice Foundation’s investigation into the dangers of payday loans (click here).
	The charity was asked to provide expert comment on borrowing money at Christmas in The Sun newspaper (click here).
	ITV's This Morning show featured figures from our payday loans research (click here).
	The Independent quotes Debt Advice Foundation’s research into the growth of the payday market (click here).
	Daily Mail talks to Stella Creasy MP about her campaign to cap interest rates and features Debt Advice Foundation’s research into the dangers of payday loans. (click here).
	Thisismoney.co.uk, the Daily Mail financial website, quotes Dennis Benson of the Debt Advice Foundation regarding the growing need for debt advice (click here).
	BBC Breakfast spoke to Emma Bloom, one of the 10,000 people the charity has advised in the last year, sharing her views on debt education (click here).
	The Sun features an article about how debt can affect a relationship and interviewed a couple that Debt Advice Foundation has helped (click here).
	Third Sector, the leading charity magazine announces the launch of the Debt Advice Foundation helpline (click here).
	Public Sector Executive, features David Rodger, Debt Advice Foundation urging councils to work with debt charities in the wake of Ombudsman criticism (click here).
	Wales Online asks Managing Director David Rodger for his view on the current state of the short-term credit and secured lending markets (click here).
	Goodtoknow asked David Rodger to share his money advice tips to its readers in a series of articles (click here).
	Lancashire Telegraph interviews David Rodger of the Debt Advice Foundation regarding rising personal debt problems in Lancashire (click here).
	CCR magazine for the credit industry, announces the launch of the Debt Advice Foundation helpline (click here).
	Woman Magazine asked David Rodger to advise its readers on what to do if they’re worried about debt (click here).
	Lancashire Telegraph covers the launch of the UK's first debt school, which the charity has funded (click here).