Steve Weber was forced to step down as the second-longest-term pension minister after the Lib Dems were all but wiped out in the 2015 election.
It was a blow to Steve, who relished the opportunity to really turn things around for the public. He worked there for five years, helping to get the auto-registration scheme and triple-lock out to the masses.
“When you’re in government, you can do a lot of things, and one of the nicest things about being in power is being able to help people,” he said.
Combining his office work with local surgical offices and offering face-to-face meetings means long stretches over the weekend. Before entering politics, he worked as a microeconomist at the Institute for Financial Studies for nine years and then taught social policy at the University of Bath.
“Being a pastor completely takes up your life. You spend as much time as the public trying to win over the government. After I left Parliament in 2015, I found that I was missing one thing, which is helping people benefits. Complexity of the country. Use my knowledge to help people navigate the system.”
After retiring from politics, he joined the LCP as a retirement advisor and now volunteers in his spare time for New Start, a debt counseling charity.
“My wife and I have been going to our local Baptist church for many years, where they have a small charitable debt of six volunteers, so I decided to train and start working with them four years ago.”
Steve has worked with many people since his training, usually helping four or five people with face-to-face meetings. It takes two days a week, sometimes longer.
This is a service that has become more dependent on the cost-of-living crisis and debt problems are likely to become more common in normal months.
“We are seeing high demand, but at the moment this is only superficial knowledge. The British attitude towards money and debt is such that we don’t talk about it at all. But this means that you can get better financial results. ”
He saw all sorts of people coming for advice, from young to old, from men to women, from families to singles.
Helping individuals can take months as teams must figure out how much people are spending and also work with companies to help their customers.
Most recently, he worked with a woman in her fifties who had previously dealt with personal issues. She came to New Start Debt Advice after realizing her finances were in total disarray and everything was overdue.
Steve said: “She came to us and said her bills weren’t paying off and she couldn’t even cover basic living expenses. She was organized and provided all the facts and figures, but there is no certainty or expectation that anyone will listen to her.” “. .
“After investigation, I could tell she was right and the numbers didn’t add up. I contacted all the creditors who contacted her, including the housing association, and found that she had deducted a huge amount of rent from her benefits, causing her non-payment of debt, inability to pay electricity bills.
“After I explained the situation, she agreed to relax and lower the fee. The water bill also looked high for a small house.
While this is one example of many success stories, Steve makes the point that the team doesn’t make promises they can’t keep, and there’s not always an easy answer.
“A client in their thirties was in debt and owed money on the shop card. Luckily we had a payment plan for this, but we were not so lucky with their energy company Eon Next who owed them around £1,500.
“They filled out all the required forms to apply for the E.ON Next Energy Fund, which is designed to help clients in financial difficulty, but the company rejected the application for help.
“They just said we applied some standard that this client doesn’t meet, but didn’t go into detail about what it was. We couldn’t appeal and had to find another way to help them.”
One of the main obstacles to philanthropy is that some companies refuse to disclose information or help solve existing customer problems.
Other common problems include those who are not digitally savvy, struggling to keep track of their accounts, while some do not open any of their accounts for fear of what they might find inside.
Steve said: “One of the main challenges is actually talking to someone. If you owe a big loan company, you need a lot of time just to look at the phone menu, and if you’re worried about what you might hear, you probably won’t continue. That’s something we can help with.”
“I bring these stories with me when I am very busy. These are people who trust you and share very personal details.
“Sometimes I’m in bed at night worrying about whether people can pay their electricity bills or if we’re going to get people subsidies.”
Steve’s wife, with whom he has two adult children, is a former hospital chaplain and now a chaplain, one of the first women to receive this status from the Church of England.
He foresees that he will continue to help those in debt and is clearly happy to help those who need it most.
One of the things he wants people to know is that there is help for those who are in debt or in financial difficulty and that there are plans to help you pay your bills.
“The city council has all these grants that no one knows about, they have money to help you, they just know where to look.
“I want people to know that our charity is not judgmental and we are doing everything we can to help.”
Unfortunately, it’s safe to say that as energy, food and fuel prices rise in the coming months, many people will find themselves in debt, which could put charities like Steve on the brink of collapse.
“We haven’t seen the full cost of living impact, we will see more demand. We want to see more volunteers.”
After all, Steve wants people to know that charities like him don’t judge those who are in debt, they really are willing to help.
“It’s important to remember that debt can happen to anyone. It’s easy to get out of financial control. It really could be anyone, even me or you.”
An Eon spokesperson said they can’t give a full answer without knowing the individual circumstances of the customer, but the E.ON Next Energy Fund can help pay electricity bills and even replace old ones for customers who meet the eligibility criteria detailed on our website. . .
Post time: Oct-20-2022