MALG CEO Bob Winnington is in central London for this podcast episode with someone who is familiar with the capital as a former MP, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Shadow Chancellor: Chris Leslie. Chris became MP of Shipley, West Yorkshire in 1997 (think: D-Ream’s ‘Things can only get better’), but you can now often find him even further North in Newcastle, where the headquarters of the Credit Services Association (CSA) resides. He was appointed as CEO of the UK trade body for the debt purchase and collections sector in July 2020 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Chris brings a unique blend of parliamentary experience, policy expertise, and sector engagement to his role, positioning the CSA as an authoritative voice for the debt collection industry. He works closely with government and regulators to shape and communicate public policy and promote high professional standards across CSA member firms and, under his leadership, significant progress has been made in both professionalisation of the sector and public understanding of it’s role in credit viability and debt resolution.

In this episode, ahead of the CSA’s UK Credit & Collections Conference on 11 September 2025, he gives a ‘state of the nation’ update on the future of debt purchase and collections from a regulatory, political and industry point of view.

For this special episode of the Money Advice Liaison Group (MALG) Podcast - a special edition which has been recorded and can be watched here https://youtu.be/qm_Lo1PGn7k as well as listened to - MALG CEO Bob Winnington talks to Lee Healey.

Lee started his career at the Department for Work and Pensions as a decision maker handling benefits and later worked as a benefits adviser and manager with the Disablement Association of Barking & Dagenham in his Essex homeland. He earned a certificate in Money Advice Practice and Debt Advice at Staffordshire University after founding IncomeMAX in 2009.

Lee has built the Community Interest Company from the ground up, transforming it into a leading UK social enterprise that blends human-centred financial advice with AI-powered innovation. His commitment to helping vulnerable individuals and low income households claim every penny of support they’re entitled to has driven IncomeMAX to identify well over £50 million in new income for more than 150,000 households. But he doesn’t take all the credit himself – Lee publicly champions and recognises IncomeMAX’s 40-strong team for their hard work and dedication.

As one of the top 100 influential people on LinkedIn and an expert guest on the Martin Lewis Money Show Live, BBC News, Sky News and Channel 5, Lee is recognised nationally for his influence and impact on improvements to the benefits system. He may have ‘old school’ values but he’s a true innovator, something which has seen him being shortlisted for AI Entrepreneur of the Year at the Great British Entrepreneur Awards 2025.

Lee is also a passionate support of MALG as a former Board Member and now Ambassador. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house when he gave a post-pandemic closing keynote speech at the MALG Conference in 2022 entitled ‘Fighting for their Rights – A call to action for the money advice sector’, which is why we’ve invited him back to do the opening keynote at the MALG Conference 2025, which will be all about the evolving debt policy landscape. This episode is a pre-cursor to what he’ll be talking about at the conference because, let’s face it, we could listen to Lee talk passionately about what he does all day.

In this episode of the MALG Podcast, Bob Winnington is at the headquarters of the organisation that maintains the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines to meet with its CEO Chris Dick. Registry Trust’s live data on monetary judgments, including CCJs, supports millions of lending and credit decisions in the UK & Ireland every year, helping to keep the economy moving and identify economic trends.

Chris had a 20-year career at Barclays Bank followed by a stint at qualifications body AQA before joining Registry Trust in 2021 as its Director of Operations and stepping up into the role of Chief Executive in December 2024. Described by peers as inspiring, authentic, and passionate with a strong set of personal values, Chris is bringing these characteristics to leading the not-for-profit, purpose-led organisation into the future.

At its recent 40th anniversary celebration, stakeholders were asked:

In this conversation, Chris answers these questions and explores what the future looks likes for this impartial and important source of credit information.

For this episode of the Money Advice Liaison Group (MALG) Podcast, CEO Bob Winnington travels to Sheffield to the headquarters of a major bank to meet with Isobel Crosse.

Izzy started out her career in the debt sector in 2014 as a Performance Analyst at TDX Group, part of Equifax, where she put her BSc in Economics and analytical mind to work on government contracts. In less than six years, she had worked her way up to Head of Customer Experience, a newly created role in response to the 2020 pandemic, and was then promoted to Head of Strategy and Customer Experience three years later. In May 2024, Isobel moved from debt recovery and credit referencing into the banking sector as Head of Financial Care for Santander UK.

She was named Vulnerability Champion of the Year at Credit Strategy’s Vulnerability Awareness Gala in 2023, and is also a trailblazer for financial education and inclusion, with a particular interest in women in financial services and leadership.

In this insightful, behind-the-scenes chat, Bob and Izzy talk about the balancing act she currently faces of managing banking customer needs with what is considered, on paper, good customer outcomes in 2025.

In this episode of the MALG podcast, host Helen Gill of Engage Comms introduces Jonathan Shaw, Partnerships Manager for Sigma Connected Group’s ReachOut service. ReachOut, a problem debt engagement solution, was designed by the outsourced customer experience solutions provider to address the dual challenge of low engagement and low awareness of available support.

When their creditor clients are unable to contact customers with debts, Sigma Connected can offer ReachOut as a confidential and impartial service – one that isn’t there to (and can’t) collect debt. Its supportive and empathetic Pathfinders can speak with vulnerable customers where creditors can’t, creating a safe environment for sensitive disclosures. After exploring reasons for non-payment and understanding the challenges faced by customers, they can then be directed to the support services they need. They say that this personal approach to engaging customers builds trust, helps people better manage debts, and improves outcomes for all parties.

Jonathan is passionate about tackling problem debt and loves to see the change that can be brought about when different organisations across multiple sectors take a collaborative approach. He started his career as a debt adviser at Christians Against Poverty or CAP – so knows what it’s like to be on the frontline. He worked his way up to Creditor Relationship Manager before joining Sigma Connected Group to lead on the ReachOut programme in January 2023. He has been described by a former colleague as a “generous collaborator, impactful communicator and creative innovator.”

In this podcast, he talks to MALG CEO Bob Winnington about some of the innovative projects he has worked on, forging partnerships that have delivered solutions including supporting residents with council tax arrears before their debts escalate to enforcement and encouraging pension credit take up. They’ll discuss why the type of human-centred support that ReachOut provides could and should never be fully replaced by AI.

Since leaving her career as a qualified Chartered Insurance Practitioner working in risk management for over a decade, Cat Divers, driven by personal experience of struggling to find help with her own set of challenging circumstances, has made it her mission to make it easier for other people to discover and connect to support services. National Support Network was created off the back of her belief that no-one should struggle alone. Her not-for-profits efforts have been recognised with awards such as the Social Entrepreneur Index and NatWest’s SE100.

As Cat explains to MALG CEO Bob Winnington in this episode, National Support Network builds customisable support directory platforms containing information on thousands of external services, including charity helplines and self-help resources. It can be accessed by customers, colleagues or communities at any time to support with a whole host of different life problems and challenges – beyond just financial difficulty, which we know can be interwoven with so many other issues.

These support platforms help to transform challenging interactions with customers, better equipping frontline staff to offer a helping hand without having to be fully trained in all the different issues customers may be facing. Companies that partner with National Support Network can also access anonymised analytics to better understand the support needs of their customers and to demonstrate the real-world impact of the platform in improving access to services.

Listen to her valuable insights about the life-changing 'ripple effect' of getting customers to the right help quickly and easily.

In this episode of the Money Advice Liaison Group (MALG) Podcast, MALG CEO Bob Winnington and podcast host Helen Gill of Engage Comms travel to Bromsgrove to the offices of Broadriver Groups’ ControlAccount Ltd. Their guest is newly appointed Brand Ambassador Neil Jinks.

Aside from all these accolades, Neil is not only a master networker but believes firmly in bringing his authentic self to his work based on his personal journey of discovery with his sexuality and his first-hand experience of seeing the proven business case for diversity & inclusion in a sector that deals with sensitive issues impacting people's lives.

He talks to Bob about the importance of this authenticity in building relationships, networks and connections that foster cross-sector collaboration - and, ultimately, in improving the lives of people in debt.

Those who were at the Money Advice Liaison Group (MALG) Conference in November 2024 will remember Vivi Friedgut from the session on ‘finfluencer culture’. Vivi founded Blackbullion in 2016 as a financial wellbeing platform that houses UK support funds, scholarships and grants for students. Today, over 1.2 million students can access Blackbullion’s platform and it partners with over 75 universities, colleges and businesses across the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa to proactively support student financial wellbeing. Vivi’s vision is for it to become the all-in-one money management space for students that supports them before, during and after their studies, helping every student to develop financial skills and confidence for life.

In this episode, MALG CEO Bob Winnington and Helen Gill of Engage Comms are at Blackbullion’s offices in London to give listeners the opportunity to get more insight from Vivi on young people’s behaviours when it comes to managing their money. From busting the myth that Gen Zers have no attention span, to challenging the idea that AI can offer meaningful financial education, this chat offers a balanced, data-driven view on what the future of financial wellbeing should look like.

On Episode 2 of the Money Advice Liaison Group (MALG) Podcast, MALG CEO Bob Winnington is at Policy in Practice’s headquarters in London to meet with its Chief Product Officer Genevieve Orford to talk about the power of partnerships.

Genevieve joined Policy in Practice - the social policy software and analytics company working with councils, government, housing providers and community organisations to reduce poverty and empower people – in December 2021. She took part in her first ever conference panel session at the MALG Conference in Leeds on 7 November 2024 where she shared insights into why partnerships are central to the success of Policy in Practice’s award winning, free ‘Better Off Calculator’.

In this episode, she and Bob talk more about the power of partnerships – why they’re so important, when they work, and what the potential challenges are. She goes into detail about how partnerships that Policy in Practice have formed through the MALG network have contributed to the development of innovative solutions that streamline access to tailored support and advice.

Listen in to learn how to 'work together to improve the lives of people in debt'.

In this first episode of the Money Advice Liaison Group (MALG) podcast, MALG CEO Bob Winnington has the pleasure of sitting down with someone who may be familiar to some listeners, Dr Chris Fitch. He is the Money Advice Trust’s Vulnerability Lead and Research Fellow at the University of Bristol’s Personal Finance Research Centre. As a prolific and highly engaging speaker and host of the ‘Vulnerability Matters’ podcast he’s one of if not the leading voice on fair treatment of vulnerable customers by financial services, utilities, telecoms and related firms in the UK and beyond. A researcher by trade, he delves deep into issues facing vulnerable customers using a ‘lived experience’ approach to come up with practical solutions that work.

His latest passion project is the Government’s ‘Share Once Support Register’ which will mean vulnerable customers only need to register with energy, telecoms and water companies once to access extra help. In this episode, Bob has the opportunity to ask Chris what his secret is when it comes to galvanising people and organisations to get on board with his collaborative projects and how he manages to communicate his messages so well. They discuss the 10 principles for designing consumer data sharing programmes which a group of independent experts have come up with to inform the new Share Once Support Register and we get Chris' take on what the new Government needs to do to ensure that vulnerable customers are finally offered the service they deserve.