Consumer Focus faces axe in quango cull

[Mojooo]

Consumer Focus, the body set up by the last Government to represent consumers and challenge companies, will be scrapped, the BBC has learned.

Other consumer bodies facing abolition include the Office of Fair Trading and Consumer Direct.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/9077000.stm

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As someone who has worked in the consumer protection industry and am a real believer in consumer power this can only be a disaster for consumers. There are already MORE issues than resources can cope with so I don't see how this will help.

CAB cannot replace Consumer Direct because they don't have the resources or skills, hell Consumer Direct are lacking resources & skills as they are being squeezed financially.

The idea that local authority Trading Standards can pick up the slack when they are also facing cuts themselves is clearly silly.

All it will lead to is companies getting away with more murder than they already do (and believe me, there is a lot of bad stuff going on out there!.

[tank slapper]

Mojooo said:

the BBC has learned.

I hate that phrase. What they actually mean is, some quangocrat who is about to lose his job has leaked it to them.

Why do we need so many publicly funded organisations doing ostensibly the same job? Sounds like a good idea to rationalise them.

[Mojooo]

tank slapper said:

Mojooo said:

the BBC has learned.

I hate that phrase. What they actually mean is, some quangocrat who is about to lose his job has leaked it to them.

Why do we need so many publicly funded organisations doing ostensibly the same job? Sounds like a good idea to rationalise them.

they dont do the same jobs

OFT does a range of things like credit and estate agency works and well as looking at national issues and enforcement.

consumer direct provides the advice to consumers for individual problems

[loafer123]

The one thing that has become clear over the last few weeks is that everyone thinks their area should be the exception.

[Mojooo]

loafer123 said:

The one thing that has become clear over the last few weeks is that everyone thinks their area should be the exception.

indeed

I wont be affected by these cuts directly but i definitley see a massive disadvantage to UK consumers.

[FourWheelDrift]

"Their activities will be taken over by Citizens Advice and Trading Standards offices."

What's wrong then, no service will be lost.

[Mojooo]

FourWheelDrift said:

"Their activities will be taken over by Citizens Advice and Trading Standards offices."

What's wrong then, no service will be lost.

CAB - they dont have the skills to be advising people on most matters. CAB advisors must have to know a HUGE deal of stuff and they cannot be expected to know everything. My expeirence is that CAB will send people to consumer direct when they cannot answer their query, not the other way around.

TS - most TS depts got rid of their telephone based advice services when CD opened, so most of them dont have the manpower or civil advice knowledge to be dealing with the workload. Trading Standards depts are facing cuts - how are they going to increase staff to cope with demand?

I know of a couple of TS depts so low on numbers they wont respond to 99% of consumer queries sent to them from consumer direct. therefore, unless they hire and train new staff (unlikely) people in their region now wont have access to ANY advice from a proper advisor unless they go to CAB (which aint ideal).

Consumer direct also allows TS depts to see which companies nationally are most complained about and take action - that source of intelligence will now be gone as TS depts will presumably be collecting data only for their own region.

[Parrot of Doom]

Meh, I go to the internet for such advice. I don't recall any consumer bodies ever advising people to challenge council parking tickets, or ignore private parking charges.

[maser_spyder]

Maybe not now, but they will. I would expect a proportion of consumer direct staff to move to CAB to cover the extra workload.

The point is, having three of four departments, with three of four tiers of management, three or four buildings, three or four IT systems, etc. Is simply not feasible when the country cannot afford it.

Putting everybody under one roof, with a single (albeit larger) management structure makes perfect sense to me.

Saying that, I run a private enterprise, so know how to look after spending. I think most public body budgeters wouldn't appreciate where you can start to cut costs!

[Pupp]

Parrot of Doom said:

Meh, I go to the internet for such advice. I don't recall any consumer bodies ever advising people to challenge council parking tickets, or ignore private parking charges.

No, and I doubt you would have got £70m back from NPower for 100s of thousands of over-charged customers with a bit of guidance off the net either... maybe that one result earned then their keep (unless NPower shares are held by the abolitionists of course)

[freecar]

Having never heard of the above quango, I couldn't give a toss whether thy exist or not!

I'd like to see how many people they help per year for what cost before I decide whether it was a good idea or not. I'm also an avid reader of internet forum and have never seen anyone advising somebody to go to the quango so can't think it will be a tremendous loss to society.

[Mojooo]

Parrot of Doom said:

Meh, I go to the internet for such advice. I don't recall any consumer bodies ever advising people to challenge council parking tickets, or ignore private parking charges.

Why would they?

They will advise you of the ins and outs of your contractual rights for private parking tickets. I know as well the data that gets sent to consumder direct is then collated further up the chain to deal with 'problem traders' including private parking companies.

example: http://www.wiltsglosstandard.co.uk/carsold/car_new...ruthlesswheel_clamping_scam/

With regard to your other point - there are lots of people who dont have access to the internet or cannot get answers to more complex situation. On top of that if you actually wnat atcion taken against a company you have to report it to some authrotiy, just whining on pistonheads about clampers achieves nothing.

maser_spyder said:

Putting everybody under one roof, with a single (albeit larger) management structure makes perfect sense to me.

I agree, and that was what happened with Consumer Direct, a more national and consistent way of providing basic advice to consumers. It also meant people in areas with poor councils got consistent advice like everyone else.

AFAIK the OFT is actually in charge of CD but things could be merged and costs saved - not gotten rid of.

freecar said:

Having never heard of the above quango, I couldn't give a toss whether thy exist or not!

I'd like to see how many people they help per year for what cost before I decide whether it was a good idea or not. I'm also an avid reader of internet forum and have never seen anyone advising somebody to go to the quango so can't think it will be a tremendous loss to society.

Oh, the old 'i dont know what they do so i dont care'

quite ridiculous, you could eaisly find out now you know.

the OFT has a list of things listed on its website.

with regards to CD...

Consumer Direct advisors answered more than 1.5 million calls and emails in calendar year 2009

[s3fella]

I am a consumer. I have never heard fo these people, nor had cause to contact them. Nor can I envisage ever having to do so.
I don't know of anyone who has contacted them, or used their services.


Therefore I reckon it will be no great loss of service, in the scale of things.

[Mojocvh]

s3fella said:

I am a consumer. I have never heard fo these people, nor had cause to contact them. Nor can I envisage ever having to do so.
I don't know of anyone who has contacted them, or used their services.


Therefore I reckon it will be no great loss of service, in the scale of things.

CAB do a LOT of good stuff.

[EDLT]

I assume they are going to merge the quangos together so nobody loses their job...

[s3fella]

Mojocvh said:

s3fella said:

I am a consumer. I have never heard fo these people, nor had cause to contact them. Nor can I envisage ever having to do so.
I don't know of anyone who has contacted them, or used their services.


Therefore I reckon it will be no great loss of service, in the scale of things.

CAB do a LOT of good stuff.

But where is it mentioned CAB will be canned? I though it was some organisation called Consumer Focus that was going?

[Mojooo]

EDLT said:

I assume they are going to merge the quangos together so nobody loses their job...

I doubt it, the way I read it is that both OFT and CD will lose jobs )possibly with the whole of CD being shut down and responsibility going to Trading Standards departments who wont actually pick up the slack to the same level.


To address the other persons point, just because you have never needed CD or Trading Standards doesn't mean there isn't a huge demand for them - as I said the demand is far outwieghing the resources IMO.

[Mojooo]

s3fella said:

Mojocvh said:

s3fella said:

I am a consumer. I have never heard fo these people, nor had cause to contact them. Nor can I envisage ever having to do so.
I don't know of anyone who has contacted them, or used their services.


Therefore I reckon it will be no great loss of service, in the scale of things.

CAB do a LOT of good stuff.

But where is it mentioned CAB will be canned? I though it was some organisation called Consumer Focus that was going?

Its consumer focus, consumer direct and OFT that will go/reduce in size

presumably for the CAB this will lead to an increase in demand

mind you i thought CAB was mainly made up of volunteers?

[MiniMan64]

I think you might of posted in the wrong place mate if you thing you'll get sympathy for quango cuts here.

I don't know what CD is so I doubt I'll miss them.

[Mojooo]

MiniMan64 said:

I think you might of posted in the wrong place mate if you thing you'll get sympathy for quango cuts here.

I don't know what CD is so I doubt I'll miss them.

I know, I know

That said, to call them a quango and bin it is silly because its all about consumer protection, which IMO should be an important thing in the governments eye and certainly a thing that is provided as a matter of course.

Next time someone comes on here aksing about a clocked car or dodgy electrical appliance they bought we'll have to let them take some of the incorrect advice given on here.