There’s light at end of the debt tunnel

There’s light at end of the debt tunnel

27 November 2013

FOR those who haven’t heard of the Christians Against Poverty phenomenon, this isn’t about a group of well meaning do-gooders.

This is a debt counselling service with clout, taking on the world’s biggest banks and financial institutions and transforming the lives of its often desperate clients.

As a holistic service, its volunteers may offer to pray with you, but at its heart is some of the best practical help on the market.

Christians Against Poverty (CAP) is a national charity that operates through a growing network of debt centres opened in partnership with local churches; but they help anyone, regardless of their religious beliefs.

It uses a combination of face-to-face home visits, budgeting advice, debt management, creditor negotiations, insolvency services and befriending.

Winston Shaw is the Ballynahinch man spearheading the new Mid Down Christians Against Poverty group, joining 12 others in Northern Ireland.

For Winston, who ran several software and telecommunications businesses before retiring, and who lectured in business, it has been a personal calling.

“I have worked in industry all my life,” he said. “I was just aware that especially with the recession there have been increasing numbers of homes and families in financial difficulties.

“The biblical command is ‘to be out there’ helping. For quite a long time I did not know how to approach it until I found Christians Against Poverty.”

With 40 years in the industry, and having weathered several recessions plus the dot.com boom and bust, Winston said he had his own share of hurdles to overcome.

“I personally made people redundant myself,” he said. “It is probably one of the most difficult things to say to a young fellow, who at home has a wife and a family, that they no longer have a job.”

Reflecting on the most recent credit crunch, which didn’t affect him personally, he said: “I saw people losing their homes, people going bust, people made redundant — families in the town of Ballynahinch, a rural area where the construction industry was very important. It will take years and years to recover from that.”

Winston feels there is no one institution to blame for the world’s recent financial woes, but that the “main cause was greed”.

“Everybody wanted credit, more and more credit, they do not realise it has to be paid back,” he said. “Credit is debt, credit is not a gift.

“Also people are encouraged to take credit cards. They are not doing something wrong within the social environment of today but I believe it is a difficult piece of plastic to control.

“Pay day loans are similarly an increasing problem for our clients.

“Many, many people also get into debt because their circumstances have changed and it is no fault of theirs...left to pay the mortgage on their own through bereavement or a relationship breakdown.”

Whatever situation clients find themselves in, however, Winston is clear there is no judgement, only compassion and practical help.

“People are in difficulty and we are here to help them out of difficulty,” he said. “They have perhaps blamed themselves enough by the time they get to us, blamed and shamed themselves partly because people are so reticent to talk about it.”

Winston explained that each client is visited in their own home, a budget is drawn up, the charity does all the negotiating with creditors and local volunteers offer support to each person face-to-face until the day they are debt free. The client makes one weekly or monthly payment into a CAP account to cover their bills and debt repayments, which is then distributed on their behalf.

Acknowledging the health problems associated with unmanageable debt, Winston reflected: “People can be suffering from depression because of the desperate situation and all the stress resulting from the money demands. It is hard to know where something like that starts.

“CAP can take control of that and within a very short time they are seeing a real difference to their situation.

“I think debt is a thing people are very reluctant to own up to or make public. It is something they try to hide for as long as possible.

“Christians Against Poverty was set up by John Kirkby, who was in the financial services industry in the 1990s. He lost his businesses and out of his experiences climbing out of debt he said if I can do it for myself I can do it for others.

“The Mid Down Group is something that four churches in Ballynahinch have brought together — the Baptist, Methodist and two Presbyterian, which have worked closely for a number of years in terms of social outreach projects, such as The Edge, The Hub and the foodbank.”

Winston, who also runs money management training programmes for CAP, says he hopes the Christian ethos at the heart of his work shines through, but that it is not something they force on people.

“Hopefully, we work best as an example,” he said. “Many people who don’t necessarily consider themselves church goers still admit that they have some kind of faith.

“It is something we wish the client to know, that there is a God to care about them, and who has shown us a way to help them. I hope one of the ways we help people is our personal approach — the personal contact, the personal relationship. We are with them throughout the process until the end.”

Christians Against Poverty can be contacted on 0800 328 0006. The caller’s post code will be used to put them in touch with a local volunteer. The Mid Down Group, which will be staffed by a group of volunteers, is currently working within an approximate 10 mile radius of Ballynahinch.