The National Consumer Tribunal Presentation At Parliament
Industry News
Recently the Notional Consumer Tribunal (NCT) joined the National Credit Regulator (NCR) in making a presentation to Parliament.
The presentation discussed their role in debt review and their recent accomplishments. They also laid out some of the challenges facing the NCT and industry.
What They Have Accomplished
Back in 2008, the NCT could only handle one matter a day. But now they’re able to handle around 80 cases every single day!
At present the NCT are dealing with around 30,000 cases each year. With 10 -12 000 people currently signing up for debt review each month this mean the NCT do indeed have capacity to help with many more cases (of course, they also help with other non debt review related matters as well, so they are busy).
The NCT have, with the help of their online system, managed to speed things up and have around a 29 day turnaround time. Even during the pandemic, they didn’t miss a beat thanks to their online system.
Challenges & Recommendations
They also presented information relating to the challenges in the industry.
Currently, the NCT can only handle specific debt review matters but they have capacity to handle many more matters and could be used to take pressure off the already strained (and more expensive) court system
They would like to assist in the situation where a consumer is already overwhelmed by debt and over indebted. This would require changes to the National Credit Act (NCA).
They also mentioned that they’re unable to change or cancel the consent orders they grant. To fix this, the law needs a little tweaking, and they hope the Act could be amended accordingly.
‘only around 200 out of 1700 active, registered Debt Counsellors are using their services’
Additionally, they’ve noticed that only around 200 out of 1700 active, registered Debt Counsellors are using their services, mostly from the Western Cape. So, they’re eager to get more buy in from more Debt Counsellors across the country.
The NCT Are Eager To Do Even More
The NCT is doing an great job assisting to protect consumers’ rights and helping with certain debt review matters.
They’ve come a really long way, handling way more cases than ever before and doing it even faster due to their online system.
While they face a few obstacles, like limited jurisdiction and the inability to change consent orders, they’re determined to overcome them and hope that amendments to the Act will help them to help reduce pressure on the courts.
