Providers have claimed that there is a need to ensure that accurate information is coming out of the CAB, as it is currently providing poor instruction. Often a first point of call for people, lenders feel that it is important for it to offer correct and fair advice or to make referrals to specialist advisers.
Jayne Almond, chief executive officer at Stonehaven, claimed that the CAB was not providing adequate information, and when she made a general trip to a centre and asked for equity release advice, she claimed that it said to avoid it all costs.
Almond said: “I don’t blame the CAB as it has got a thousand other things to deal with, but it’s not keeping the information updated. I went into a branch in North London and the information I saw was out of date. I pointed this out, so I hope it will change it.
It is unfortunate that people won’t think about equity release as a sensible option.
All we ask is for CAB to keep its information up-to-date; I advised it to speak Help the Aged, but I don’t know what research or processes it needs to enforce.”
Catherine Torazzo, senior press officer at the CAB, said: “We have a rolling programme which it is constantly updated and we don’t recommend any specific products.”
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