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book Reviews
Handbook to help ease debt
Title: The Debt Doctor
Author: Robert Leach
Publisher: Canterbury Press
Price: £16.99
ISBN: 9781853117695
The availability of mortgages out of
proportion to income, the vagaries of interest rates and the ease of
obtaining credit cards, added to perennial causes such as illness and
unemployment, are increasingly creating the need for skilled help in the
management of debt. This substantial handbook looks at the problem both
from the point of view of the person in debt, and of the sympathetic
counsellor.
The advice canvas is broad, with chapters on social security benefits,
the legal basis of debt - including the role of courts and bailiffs, the
relative merits of going for individual voluntary arrangements or
bankruptcy, consumer law and business debt. There are also mini
tutorials showing how being too clever with credit cards can actually
cost you more than paying upfront.
Robert Leach is a Christian who occasionally quotes biblical texts to
justify his strategies, quoting even the story of the unjust steward and
his prudent remission of debts in Luke chapter 16. His advice on debt
negotation takes a tough line with the lenders. He says a good debt
negotiator will form a judgment on how much the lender expects to
salvage, will start the bidding lower than this, and will wait patiently
if the lender will not negotiate. He also discusses the role of the
local church on personal debt. It should be a subject for prayer, a
problem for open discussion, occasional sermonising even, with access to
skilled counsellors, action to mitigate poverty and a church
discretionary fund held by the minister. As an extension of this, a
well-resourced church might even set up a credit union.
Leach stresses that it does not help to blame outside factors for your
own debt, and most importantly, that all debt problems are capable of
solution. There are sections of this book that would help anybody using
personal credit, and it deserves the close attention of those whose
bills are starting to mount up, and anybody seeking to help them, before
the crisis point is reached.
Robin Derbyshire is a Citizens Advice
Centre Adviser and an elder at Billericay URC
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