CompaniesNov 21 2014

MAS delivering to people in the UK: Rookes

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Money Advice Service funding is going towards helping people who need guidance, Caroline Rookes has said.

The chief executive of the government-led and industry funded initiative said more than £20m of the MAS budget has gone “straight to front-line delivery”.

She said: “This covers face-to-face sessions, telephone and web chat, printed guides, digital and product development, and developing key partnerships.”

Over the past few months, the organisation, which has taken some flak from the industry over its marketing spend, has developed a range of active partnerships with organisations, such as Age UK, BT, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Sainsbury’s to reach more people.

Ms Rookes added: “Our focus is on getting people to engage with their money. We want to make money advice a normal part of everyday life, and to help more people take action to manage their money better. This could be through better budgeting, paying down debt, starting to save for a rainy day fund, taking out insurance or saving in a pension.”

Its latest figures showed that the service received more than 10m contacts from customers in the first half of 2014/15 (April – September 2014), and in the first quarter alone more than 1.5m actions were taken by people after receiving advice.

Last week, MAS predicted that 1.4m will turn to payday loans over the festive period to cover the cost of Christmas.