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Debt Advice Handbook 14th edition

3. Administration

• The triage interview
• Making appropriate referrals
• Case recording
• Correspondence
• Reviews
• Closing cases

Good administrative systems and time management are essential in order to manage the debt advice process in an efficient way and to meet the client’s needs appropriately.

The triage interview

Many agencies use preliminary or diagnostic interviews that do not involve providing advice, but are time-limited, fact-finding interviews designed to identify:

•what service the client needs;
•any action that needs to be taken straight away; and
•the next steps, which might be:
◦providing information; or
◦signposting or referring the client to another agency; or
◦arranging for the client to receive further advice, either immediately or by appointment.

A triage interview uses a specific set of questions to ensure that all relevant details have been collected. Triage is often the client’s first contact with the agency. It is therefore important that it is accurate so that s/he can be dealt with appropriately. Clients who are assessed as being able to help themselves can be provided with the information to enable them to do so. A client can also be referred to other agencies if these are better placed to meet her/his needs.

The Money and Pensions Service uses a common initial assessment for its funded projects. This is an online triage tool. The client is asked a set of standard questions and, based on information provided by her/him, it then:

•flags up emergency situations;
•assesses the most appropriate channel for the client to access further advice, if required;
•identifies the next step for the client; and
•identifies potential debt remedies available to the client.

Making appropriate referrals

It is important to establish whether a case should be referred to a specialist or more experienced adviser, and whether there is a mechanism in place for referring cases, if appropriate, to other organisations.

Record key dates (eg, court hearings) and time limits so they are not missed and adequate preparation can be made. It may be appropriate to keep a record of referrals to track the outcome.

Once a case is opened, keep a record of the case and the client’s name and address to ensure the file can be accessed in the future should the client return after the case is closed.

In some situations, you may do no work for the client, but instead signpost her/him to a more appropriate organisation.

Case recording

If electronic case recording and storage of documents is not available, all documents relating to a case must be kept in an adequate file. Keep all the papers in date order. Incoming letters could be stored on one side of the file and outgoing on the other. You could also use dividers to separate each different creditor, so it is easy to access each debt and monitor its progress. Alternatively, papers relating to each creditor could be kept together with a separate sheet on file to indicate the action on each debt.

You must comply with data protection legislation and obtain your clients’ consent to hold sensitive personal information about them and, where relevant, to share information about their cases with third parties – eg, for monitoring or quality checking purposes.

Correspondence

Keep the client informed of each stage of the case and give her/him copies of correspondence from the creditor. Telephone conversations should be recorded in the file, including names of those spoken to and on what date. It is good practice to follow up the call with an email or letter from either you or the creditor, as appropriate, to confirm information discussed if it is relevant to the case.

Reviews

Each case should be regularly reviewed to check that replies have been received, that preparation for any court hearings has been carried out, and what the next step in the case should be. A brought-forward diary system may be useful to ensure that important dates are noted and there are regular follow-ups. There is no point keeping a file open if there is no further work to be carried out, or if the client has ceased to engage and is not responding to your attempts to make contact with her/him.

By managing the caseload, you also have a clearer idea of how many additional cases, if any, you can take on.

Cases should also be reviewed, if possible, by other advisers to check that the advice given is appropriate and correct.

Closing cases

At the outset, you should give the client an indication of how long the case will remain open. This gives you an idea of how many cases you are dealing with and when you can take on any more. As you are trying to empower the client, your aim should be that, once the work is done on the case, clients can continue with the work themselves, but with the option of possibly returning in the future should they feel unable to deal with matters themselves or if there is a change of circumstance.

A case can be closed if:

•the strategy for the client is up and running successfully; or
•you have lost contact with the client and s/he has not responded to your attempts to contact her/him; or
•the client no longer wants help from the agency or is changing advisers; or
•the agency is no longer able to provide a service to the client.

The Institute of Money Advisers’ Money Advice Statement of Good Practice says that a creditor should only be informed that a case has been closed if:

•the adviser has been unable to obtain instructions from the client; or
•the client has informed the adviser that s/he is now dealing with the creditor in person.

This is to address the problem of a case being closed because a payment arrangement has been set up and the creditor then contacts the client directly to try to persuade her/him to increase payments. If a creditor contacts an agency again in those circumstances, it should be informed the case has been closed and it should be referred directly to the client.

If a client returns for help when creditors are asking for a review of the finances, it may be advisable to assist her/him with a new financial statement and then advise how to prepare an offer letter, with the intention that s/he acts for her/himself.

Clients should be warned that some funders have time limits on when cases can be reopened on the same issue. This can be problematic if a client fails to keep in contact, the case is closed and s/he then returns.