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DTI Launch Independent Impact Assesment Into Credit Bill

The Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) has launched research into the possible impact of the coming Amendments to the National Credit Act (Debt Intervention Bill).

The Bill makes investigation of reckless credit obligatory on all credit accounts coming into debt review, as well as, introduces Debt Review for the poor and unemployed by the National Credit Regulator (NCR) – called ‘debt intervention’.

The DTI has been holding public hearings across the country and are trying to figure out if the Bill is going to work or not. One of the biggest concerns is whether the Bill is actually constitutional or not. The various large banks and some advisors to the Portfolio Committee on Tared & Industry have said some parts of the Bill may not be.

An Independent Assessment

The DTI has now appointed Genesis Analytics to consult with industry stakeholders to do an independent assessment of the socio-economic impact that the bill may have.

Debt Counsellors, who already help many consumers who earn lower incomes to deal with their debts have been asked to participate in the research and complete an online survey on the topic.

Debt Counsellors can complete the survey here:

Debt Counsellor Survey

 

The research is focused mainly on how the introduction of debt review done by the NCR for low income or no income consumers is going to impact on the Debt Counsellors business and how that will probably affect their employees and turn over. Many people think that Debt Counsellors seldom help consumers who earn less than R7500 each month.

At present, the average debt repayment for consumers entering debt review hovers around R2200 a month (which is normally around a 50% reduction on what they had been paying previously (+- R4400). Since, statistically, consumers debt is often about 70 – 75% of their income this would then mean that the so-called “average” consumers come from a household earning less than the suggested R7500/month.

The concern some companies and Debt Counsellors have is that this will then mean that the NCR may begin to help all their potential clients driving them out of business or into a new segment of the market, meaning they may have to let many of their employees go or even closing their business.