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Debt advice services

The government is committed to ensuring that any family facing debts which they can't manage can access free impartial debt advice to help them get back on track.

The Pre-Budget Report announced additional government funding of £5.85 million for an extension of telephone advice services, and £10 million to extend face-to-face advice services, to ensure everyone has access to free debt advice when they need it.

For information on free and impartial sources of debt advice, see 'Where to get advice and support on debt'.

• Where to get advice and support on debt

Supporting housing

The government is providing additional support to help people and households in financial difficulty through:

• a commitment for the coming year by the major mortgage lenders, not to repossess homes within three months of the owner occupier going into arrears
• protecting more vulnerable homeowners in financial difficulty by extending the Mortgage Rescue scheme to cover second charge lending
• increasing the generosity of the Support for Mortgage Interest scheme for homeowners who lose their jobs
• establishing a Lending Panel to monitor lending to households and businesses - the Panel will bring together lenders, trade bodies, consumer groups, and the government, regulators and the Bank of England

Supporting employment

To ensure that people facing redundancy and seeking employment are helped back into work as quickly as possible, the government announced a package of support including:

• extending Train to Gain to provide new training to people before they are made redundant
• expanding the Rapid Response Scheme to target small and large scale redundancies
• extending local employment partnerships to focus on the short term unemployed
• an additional £1.3 billion over the next two years to ensure Jobcentre Plus can continue delivering effective support for the unemployed to find a new job
• a National Employment Partnership bringing together the government and major employers to tackle rising unemployment