Consumer issues will now be handled by the Citizen’s Advice Bureau after the government committed to axing the Consumer Direct helpline.

Consumer Direct is one of around 190 quangos that will be culled by the coalition government as part of the national spending review, with the Citizen’s Advice Bureau charity now assuming the consumer helpline.

Consumer direct was a national body designed to help the general public with consumer issues, with a dedicated website and helpline supporting local trading standards office. Under the spending review, local trading standards offices would be unaffected.

Other changes will see the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) merged with the Competition Commission – a move which will also see the OFT stripped of its consumer protection role. Inste

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Most people don’t budget because they do not understand the value of having a family budget. The number one reason to go on a budget is to keep an eye on your family’s income and spending. It’s a lot more simple to see what’s arriving and leaving when putting it in a family budget plan, in place of keeping track of it mentally. Budgeting guarantees you are not overspending and that you are making the best use of the cash coming into your home. If there are spending spills, building a financial plan will help you find out where the money is going. Budgeting can help you think ahead for big financial ambitions like holiday splurging and vacation planning.

The first step in creating your home budget include, adding up all of your monthly income. Multiply bi-weekly pay by two and weekly pay by four to come up with the income for the month. Add any alimony or support you receive for having children. Only implicate dependable sources of income. Read more…

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A Chapter 7 bankruptcy debtor’s tax refund is non-exempt and is part of the bankruptcy estate. Except that a Florida bankruptcy attorney told me about a case in another district  where the bankruptcy debtor may have beaten ths system. The debtor filed his federal income tax return as he was preparing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. He realized he would be eligible for a significant tax refund which would be lost to the trustee. So, when the debtor filed the tax return he check the box authorizing the IRS to apply the tax refund to future year’s tax liability. When he filed bankruptcy, the trustee demanded the tax refund. The debtor replied that he was expecting no refund. The issue went to court and was appealed all the way to the circuit court of appeals.

The appellate court ruled for the debtor. The court said the debtor had no right or ability to claim and turnover the tax refund because under the Internal Revenue Code the debtor/taxpayer’s election to defer the refund is irrevocable. Becaus

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If you file bankruptcy and want to keep your car subject to a car loan you have to sign a reaffirmation agreement with the car lender wherein you agree to remain personally liable if you fail to make the payment in the future after your bankruptcy is over. Reaffirmation of car debt is an express requirement in the bankruptcy law. The bankruptcy law does not similarly refer to an obligation to reaffirm a secured debt, such as your home mortgage.

Absent the specific requirement to reaffirm secured loans most bankruptcy debtors refused to sign reaffirmation agreements with mortgage lenders. The listed the mortgage on their bankruptcy schedules to discharge personal liability under the mortgage note while they continued making their mortgage payment. That way, the debtors could stay in their house if they continued making mortgage payments after bankruptcy, but if the debtor’s had future money problems they could walk away from the house and be protected from personal liability because their bankruptcy had already wiped out their personal liability. T

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Minimum wage workers should see an increase in their pay from this month, with the national minimum wage increasing to £5.93 an hour, up from £5.80.

For the first time, people aged 21 will benefit from the top rate wage, which was previously only compulsory for workers aged 22 or over.

There are also corresponding increases for younger workers, with 16 and 17-year-olds seeing a rise from £3.57 an hour to £3.64. For 18 to 20-year-olds the rate is increasing from £4.83 to £4.92 an hour.

For the first time, a national minimum wage has been introduced for apprentices under the age of 19, who must now be paid £2.50 an hour as part of their apprenticeship.

But the British Retail Consortium, an industry that relies heavily on minimum wage labour, claimed that the government had to be careful that it didn’t discourage further job growth with additional increases.

“Trading conditions are tough, higher costs, such as next April’s National Insurance increase will pile on even more pressure,” said Stephen Robertson, of the BRC.

“Even a small increase in 2011′s minimum wage could choke off retailers’ vital potential to create new jobs.”

The government is also cracking down on employers who flout the minimum wage laws. It said

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A recent article in the New York Times notes that bankruptcy filings have been seriously affected by the tight credit market we’ve seen over the last few years. Specifically, the article cites numbers that suggest that the current rate of personal bankruptcy filings, while high, could have been much higher if creditors hadn’t scaled back their credit offerings in recent years.

Fewer Opportunities to Accrue Debt

According to the article, this is what’s been happening in the U.S. world of credit, debt and bankruptcy protection:

• Credit dries up: When the financial crisis hit in 2007 and 2008, many lenders (including credit card issuers, mortgage lenders and others) seriously scaled back their credit offerings. They

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