Creditcare Debt Survival Charity
For Good or Bad, This Charity Was Born
Our Research of HM Courts
Revealed 404 People Committed Debt-Suicide in 1996
Nobody should die of debt. Rather than just give some warm words of comfort to the widow and two teenage children of his friend, Russ McLean, the founder of this publication thought long and hard about how to remedy this nightmare. Russ had popped into his friend’s estate agency for a up of coffee and to chat about any unusual or unique buildings that had come onto the local property market.
To his shock, when he walked into the estate agency, the staff were in a state of distress and crying.
The owner had taken his life because the business had been caught out during the 1990s recession. Officially that period of austerity had ended on 26th April 1993 (here). Russ’ friend had kept the business, and seven jobs in that business, alive for 3 more years after the end of the 1990s recession.
But the owner had used up all of his life savings and it appeared he took his life so that his family and the business and the jobs of those who worked with him could be better off if he were dead. He had an insurance policy.
To any reasonable person reading this, the question that haunts is “there must be a better way that avoids suicide?”
Rather than just offer the widow and children of his friend some warm words and platitudes such as: “if there is anything I can do just call me.” Russ believed his friend, a very decent man, would have wanted something good to come from what was an awful situation.
^^ The Bank of England ^^
Threadneedle Street, London, Since 1734.
Photograph (c) 23rd March 2014 With Kind
Thanks To Steve Daniels & Geograph. cc.by/2.0 - 3898553
For several years, Russ McLean and a small group of volunteers blamed the banks. But during 1997 after writing to the new charity wrote to the majority of banks, there were many letters of help and support to prevent these debt-suicides from banks.
Remarkably two bank CEOs and one Chairman sent personal cheques in excess of £1,000 each. The handwritten reply from one of these senior bank leaders was humbling and remarkably emotive as he an his wife had recently lost a family member in similar circumstance.
No, this is not the fault of the banks.
There has to be, indeed as was discovered, there is a remarkably easy way to remedy this tragic enigma.
A]. The CAB maintain the gold standard: that is to sit down with a calculator + pen + paper and work out income and outgoings. Then write to the creditors and propose a viable, affordable repayment plan. Though a 40% cut in CAB funding had not helped and our new charity was only managing 300 to 400 cases to help folk each year.
A better way is…
B]. To create stable and decent job.
Hence the result that an obscure, eccentric organisation such as Unique Property Bulletin has ended up being surrounded by 585 friends of whom 111 are active shareholders in 22 limited companies and a plc.
In what has been described as an “accidental success,” a group of friends (growing into a larger number of friends, have turned a hobby of buying and renovating closed-shops; shut-hotels and derelict-factories into renovated properties. This group then in a “Dragons Den” style, help new businesses get started in these refurbished buildings.
Very few ever fail! We have tried to encourage banks to join in, but in spite of dozens of successful example, the retail banking sector is very reluctant to take part. So we have been encouraging other folk to replicate what is a relatively simple way to club together and create jobs. Also bring the High Streets back to life. Plus stop the “last shop” or “last bank” or “last hotel” in the village from closing!
This Book Is Being Rewritten & Made Free
In An Effort To Keep Helping Reduce Debt Suicides
By Creating New Jobs
.
^^ Soon To Be Free Online ^^
New Jobs Are A Good Remedy To A Terrible Blight
Usually after a couple of years the tenants or staff in the buildings are offered the property and business at cost. The funds released then go into the next closed-shop or shut-hotel.
Since 1997, a small group of friends, including a bruise and “unemployable” old cop have managed 203 new jobs and 78 renovated buildings. That hobby-gone-wrong continues to this day in 2024. One regret? Russ says he “wishes his friend cold see that something good came to fill the dark hole of grief following his friend’s death.”
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Fuller Details
Focussing back on the actual events of the 190s and how they have relevance today, in a way that could pragmatically help remedy and prevent some of the inexorable future suicides…
=> How to stop people dying from debt.
To be precise, it was with the help of readers from our Unique Property Bulletin publication and several shareholders of our companies Argyll Group plc and Unique Property plc that got this charity started (for regulatory purposes, we would advise both public companies have been taken private).
On 25th March 1997, Russ McLean registered charity number 1061544. Talk Radio in London asked for an interview. Due to a huge number of phone calls, further funds were needed to run the charity, so the offer of a radio station interview was accepted. A radio broadcast helps folk drowning in debt to find money advice charities. Also, anyone who has run a charity will find people donate to causes they prefer: but generally they need to know that those charities exist (hence the radio broadcast).
The first interview with Scott Chisolm resulted in HUNDREDS of enquiries – from people buried in money worries. Our small group of volunteers struggled with the number of people in unmanageable debt.
To help sort out these problems, an efficient way was devised. We quickly wrote this DIY debt survival manual. To our surprise, it did the job…
^^ DIY Debt Survival Manual ^^
The debt survival manual worked well. But we ran out of the first and second 1,000 + 1,000 print runs remarkably fast. So a fresh edition was written in preparation for more folk needing these services. A good amount of fine-tuning was incorporated so that this book worked more intuitively for each client. The 1,500 copies are all gone (including the spare one in the office)!
But we are looking at updating this DIY Debt Survival manual and placing a free copy online.
Anyone willing to help us would be very welcome thanks (the writer has a dreadful reputation for mangling words and his recent encounter, being hit on the head by a 5,000 ton CalMac ferry hasn’t helped. Anyways, you can get in touch with him at…
=> Russ McLean, Ensign House, Tod Head Lighthouse Station, Kinneff By Montrose, Aberdeenshire, DD10 0TH.
=> Or if you prefer electronic communication, just click here.
It helps folk in dire straits and also helps the banks and creditors. The classic “win, win.”
We are still passionate about remembering our friend and find way to help reduce the dreadful stress and carnage that uncontrolled debt brings.
^^ DIY Debt Survival Manual ^^
A lifeboat analogy for those drowning in debt.
charity number 1061544
The name Creditcure was changed to Creditcare. This was slightly less inflammatory. By this point, we were getting through to banks and a memorandum of understanding was brought about. One that moved the debt management system (during default) from the British Dickensian penalty (close to debtors prison) and find a more civilised way forward.
Dare we say, something akin the American format. By that we mean for those who try their best at starting a business for example, are not penalised to abject bankruptcy just for making their best effort to do the right thing and create jobs as well as support themselves and their families. Nobody should lose their house and family for that. But it happens and far worse…
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Creditcare Money Advice charity number 1061544
Why Start This Charity?
Here is an old photo of this website: Unique Property Bulletin Ltd., Managing Director and this companies predecessor owner, formerly Argyll Group plc., Russ McLean taken in 1993 in happier times…
^^ Russ McLean in 1993 ^^
A friend asked if Russ was chewing a wasp or a cactus given the facial expression.
To avoid misrepresentation, here is a more modern photograph…
^^ Russ McLean in 2023: 30 Years Just Flew By ^^
But not for our friend Terry. He died in 1996.
The “cactus” reference by our friend Terry, is, unfortunately where the humour ends. Out friend had a business based near to London, which is where the “younger” 1993 photo was taken. Sadly, it was our departed friend Terry who took that 1993 photo of Russ. It was at a time when Terry was at a happier time in his life.
We did not know it back between 1993 and 1996…
=> But Russ McLean’s friend Terry was headed towards financial ruin.
=> Within a short while of what was a happy occasion, Russ’ friend had taken his own life.
=> Rather than just offer some warm words of condolence to his friend’s widow and two teenage children, Russ channelled the anger and distress by writing to every Coroner in England and Wales asking how many people take their own lives where debt is a material factor.
=> All of the Procurators Fiscal in Scotland were written to as well ~ the coronial system is slightly different in the north (updated: click here).
=> The answer (in the 1990s using old-school pen and paper) was an appalling 404 debt-suicides each year in the UK.
=> When warm words of condolence do not seem to do justice at a funeral, sometimes it is a fair idea to remedy the actual cause of the tragedy.
=> In this case, the Creditcare Support and Debt Advice Association was registered at the Charity Commission.
This charity’s aims are covered here in this excerpt from the Charity Commission website…
Please Note, The Creditare Support & Debt Advice Association Still Exists
It is no longer a charity and has been DORMANT between 2007 and 2024. The original trustees are considering restarting the charity.
Although there may be a better version in our establishing a new charity with the aim of getting fuel prices down from 45p per killowatt hour to the affordable 12p as it was before the Ukrainian War.
That way pensioners and vulnerable people with disabilities and struggling families can afford to…
EAT AND HEAT!
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^^ Excerpt From The Old Charity Commission Website ^^
We closed this charity after 10 years.
“Boom & Bust” economics were ended.
Or so we were told by Gordon Brown.
Creditcare Money Advice charity number 1061544
The team at Unique Property Bulletin Ltd., and from our earlier Argyll Group plc., organisations are studiously non-political. But there is an obligation to be reasonably aware of matters surrounding political issues. Especially those, for example, where debt-management are concerned.
=> Since the 1997 General Election we had been asking politicians of all flavours that schools have tuition in how to manage money safely ~ and include that subject of safe money management within their educational curriculum
=> The Coronial Law on “preventing future suicides” is more than a fundamental basic. It is a statutory requirement.
=> All of this should help reduce this appalling and tragic waste of life.
Many years passed. Many cases were resolved.
Then, in 2006 we were advised by local MP Gordon Brown that our request for schools to teach students about money and especially household bills + safe debt-management would be included in their educational syllabus. Curiously before the phrase became common currency, our MP advised that “boom and bust” was going to be a thing of the past. Stability was intended for Gordon Brown’s legacy as Chancellor of the Exchequer (that didn’t age well, which is one reason why we are non-political).
By 2006, we had already noticed a reduction of numbers needing the services of our charity. So the trustees took a decision to gently wind down the charity after it had completed 10 years of use.
=> It was not the done thing at that time (1997 to 2007), but fortunately by the year 2024 (when this page was last updated), it is, with great relief, and an acceptable thing to admit to mental health problems. From his service in uniform, our founder had to attend fatalities that involved children. This conflated with the death of his younger brother (aged 2 and a half years old at death). That was one of the reasons for a lifelong battle with PTSD. Only in 2024 can it be felt safe to admit that PTSD was a factor in the closing of this Money Advice Charity.
The directors and we believe most human beings have a finite ability to absorb so much death and suicide. For several complex reasons surrounding health, the charity had run its course and we had to bring it to an orderly close.
In addition to several thousand folk that had been helped during the lifespan of this charity, and a modest tribute to our friend who had taken his own life, we also learnt an important lesson…
=> It may seem odd, but we now BAN mortgages on our company assets (and the majority of us have reached a healthy point where are own homes have NO mortgages on them)!
This rule has helped remove vast amount of worry and stress.
It is worthy of further study. But for this brief segment relating to the first charity, hopefully our newer readers will appreciate why we are averse to debt in general and for the past 27 years, mortgages are irrevocably off of the menu.
^^ The Angel of Debt ^^
The Observer ran an article in the 1990s.
We weren’t too keen on the title!
Creditcure Money Advice charity number 1061544
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Should We Bring Back The Creditcare
Money Advice Charity?
This website is focussing on reducing electricity bills + bringing household budgets back to manageable levels.
Plus the our High Street rescue initiative has brought 78 empty buildings back yo use and 203 new jobs. It was set to be replicated in several towns across the UK until we put that on pause to sort out the fuel-price-crisis.
As we have launched this website as a WORK-IN-PROGRESS so as to stop as many debt-suicides a soon as possible. we would ask YOU if you have a view on this question?
=> Are there enough CAB and money advice charities in the UK or do we need more?
Any advice or constructive comment that you send to us is very warmly appreciated.
What has caused us to think again about resurrecting the money advice charity (and drastically increasing the number of branches) is the details from respected money advice journalist and campaigner, Martin Lewis, C.B.E.
We are not sure about you, but this article from Martin put a shudder up our spine…
Full Martin Lewis Article: Click Here
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We closed our modest Creditcare Money Advice Charity in 2007. But 16 years later in 2023, we are now looking at whether more of these money advice charities are needed.
Ironically ALL of the good banks we approached in the 1990s were IN FAVOUR of mediation charities.
=> Money advice mediation works. It results in vastly better outcomes for folk living on the financial edge of decent into unmanageable poverty. It also assists those to whom money is owed to have a fair and trusted measure of AFFORDABLE repayment.
For the time being, experts far more qualifies than our COP-GS power generation project are helping to bring unmanageable debt under control.
^^ Full Martin Lewis Article: Click Here ^^
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Further details from Unique Property Bulletin Ltd:-
Click Here
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To find these pages again in a vast jungle of internet, just use the acronym…
Just Google…
COP-GS
Short for…
Community Owned Power Generator Station.
A quick search on Google, or your preferred search-engine of the COPGS acronym will get you safely back to this website and the project to halve your energy bills.
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Lifetime
The Creditcare Charity ran for 10 years: 1997 to 2007. Approximately 3,300 folk were helped and the Debt Advice Manual went through about 8,500 copies above the first 1,000 + 1,000 and new 1,5000 print runs.
In 2006/2007 the political view was that “boom and bust” had ended. This was a main reason for respectfully asking the Charity Commissioner to de-list our association from the Charities Commission register. Although the Creditcare Support & Debt Advice Association does still legally exist and the £633 in the association bank account is still gathering interest. If the second charity (for a completely different purpose) can post these results (charity #2: here from such a humble beginning (on this very word-processor: here (charity #2)), with the charities commissioner, then we believe the original Creditare Debt Advice charity can be revived.
In spite of what may seem the case in the television, radio and news, the vast majority of people are decent as evidenced when 750,000 who volunteered to help others at the beginning of the Covid Pandemic. That number swelled to:-
One Million People Volunteer To Put
Themselves In Harm’s Way To Help Others
Source: The Guardian
Please Support Our Supporters.
The Guardian & Observer Newspapers Have Helped Save Lives
Click Here
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Epilogue
In some ways the two original founders (here and here) are aware, that there may be a time where another Debt Advice Association needs to join the huge part of the third sector (here). So if needed, we can and will re-register the Creditcare Debt Advice Association with the Charities Commissioner (here) and original registration, now archived at the basement of the Charities Commission gathering cobwebs, but original: click here) and also OSCR in Scotland (here).
Truth be told, it was PTSD (here) from an earlier career that meant Russ was unable to continue past the 10 year anniversary.
The received wisdom at 2005/2006 was that “boom and bust” in economic cycles were over.
^^ Russ McLean & Sheena McGillivray ^^
On The Island of Islay At Argyll.
Full Disclosure
You should always be able to get in touch with
Russ McLean and the Team
Click Here
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Post Script
As mentioned earlier, we may need to restart our Creditcare Debt Advice Charity. Though there are necessary, but highly time consuming protocols to go through when registering a charity. Then comes maintaining the organisation, from crucial fundraising, book-keeping, organisational structure, motivating volunteers etc. None of usare getting any younger! So triaging the time when personal abilities allow cognitive progress with these (necessarily) deeply regulated charities mean we may serve folk better if we focus on a slightly different problem. But where that solution, if our “proof of concept” trial structure works, would help reduce the need for debt0advice significantly.
So with some lateral thought (and a great deal of inspiration on the first charity, plus the 26,000 folk who joined the second charity, here looks like what will be the full trio….
A Community Owned Power Station
Not Coal, But Wind, Hydro + Soalar + Tidal
Read More Via This QR Code
Or:
Click Here
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Contact & Help
Thanks for reading this page.
If we can help you, or if you can help us, please feel free to get in touch…
Click Here
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