Our Editor’s Note
Debtfree Magazine Issue 7: Our Editor’s Note
If 2020 were a foot race, we would have just passed the half-way mark. We would be feeling very proud of ourselves for making it this far. Cheers, pats on the back and applause all round, well done us!!!
Although we are just over halfway through 2020, we can’t congratulate ourselves just yet. When we look back at 2020, our freshest memories are of the pandemic and economic fallout from the national lockdown. We are not sure where/when exactly the finish line is for these two things, and this steals away from our positive accomplishments. We don’t know if we are heading towards greater hardship in 2021 or hopefully, some relief from the stress, pressure and tragedy. So, for now, we tiptoe with trepidation into the second half of the year, and simply hope for the best.
‘When we look back at 2020, our freshest memories are of the pandemic and economic fallout from the national lockdown’
Despite our new unfamiliar reality of living through a global pandemic, things are still progressing and fluctuating, the world is not on pause, waiting for 2021. Banks have introduced new processes, repo rates have been adjusted, and businesses are being bought and sold. The world is still spinning, although you might be feeling out of sync, somewhat disconnected from our new reality.
What the industry is seeing, is a slow increase in debt review applications. While earlier, these had dropped off to next to nothing, they have once again shot up, and this makes sense. The banks payment holidays are soon coming to a close and consumers have seen the true extent of how the lockdown has impacted their finances.
The annual Debt Review Awards peer reviews have resumed, these reviews were temporarily halted during the initial stages of the lockdown but have since resumed and will soon come to a close. Then it will be time to announce the results. So, this issue we delve into the Debt Review Awards Peer Review and how it works. We will look at how the results will be announced (and celebrated) this year despite the pandemic and lockdown restrictions.
‘let us try, as an industry, to keep as many people in debt review as possible, to offer more people than ever the relief that debt review brings’
As we all struggle onwards through the months ahead, let us try, as an industry, to keep as many people in debt review as possible, to offer more people than ever the relief that debt review brings and to help cheer one another along this complicated and tricky journey that will lead to the finish line of becoming debt free.
This article first appeared in Debtfree Magazine: issue 7 of 2020