08 Feb
Are you ready for the changes to SFS Spending Guidelines?
What is the Standard Financial Statement?
The Standard Financial Statement (SFS) is a landmark development for debt advice in the UK that delivers, for the first time, a universal income and expenditure statement, together with a single set of spending guidelines.
The tool is used to summarise a person’s income and outgoings, along with any debts they owe. Primarily for people seeking debt advice, the SFS is mainly used by debt advice providers and other relevant organisations.
It provides a single format for financial statements, allowing the debt advice sector and creditors to work together to achieve the right outcomes for people struggling with their finances.
What are the key features?
The Standard Financial Statement brings the following benefits:
- A single standard format for gathering income and expenditure
- A single set of Spending Guidelines
- Capacity to build a savings contribution into debt solutions
- Greater consistency to the debt advice process for consumers, advisers, and creditors
- Potential for more streamlined sharing of data between organisations assisting an over-indebted individual
- Principles and best practice guidance for users
New Spending Guidelines
The SFS Spending Guidelines for 2022 is now available and will take effect on 4th April 2022.
If you, or your providers, use incoming and expenditure forms as a means of establishing a customer’s ability to pay, then amounts that would be considered fair and appropriate are changing.
At IE Hub we automatically update the SFS trigger figures within our CRM systems, to ensure our clients remain fair and compliant when dealing with customer affordability.
To find out more about how IE Hub can support your collections process, click here to book a demo.