Changing Fortunes: Results from a Randomized Trial of the Offer of Debt Advice in England and Wales

Pascoe Pleasence and Nigel J. Balmer

Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, 2007, vol. 4, issue 3, 651-673

Abstract: A randomized trial was conducted to assess whether the offer of advice to those experiencing debt problems and who had yet to obtain any formal advice, had a positive impact on their financial and general circumstances. The participants were drawn from 16 Jobcentres (welfare offices) in 13 areas of England and Wales. In all, 402 participants were included in the trial at its outset; 234 participants remained in the trial at the 20‐week followup. There was no significant difference in the rate at which intervention and control group respondents had resolved their debt problems at the 20‐week followup. However, the former were significantly more likely to describe their financial position as “better” than at baseline. There was also evidence that they became more knowledgeable about their financial circumstances, more focused on dealing with priority debt, and more optimistic about their future prospects, relative to control group counterparts. These findings, though, fell short of statistical significance. The findings provide the first experimental evidence of a positive impact of the offer of debt advice. The study also highlights the difficulties of applying experimental methods in a social setting. One lesson drawn from the difficulties encountered in running this trial is that takeup is likely to be low for some forms of pro‐active advice for sensitive problem types experienced among disadvantaged communities.

Date: 2007
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-1461.2007.00102.x

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:empleg:v:4:y:2007:i:3:p:651-673

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Empirical Legal Studies from John Wiley & Sons
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().