FOUNDATION FOR CREDIT COUNSELLING

Registered charity 1016630 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as CCCS, CONSUMER CREDIT COUNSELLING SERVICE, STEPCHANGE DEBT CHARITY · also registered in Scotland as SC046263 (OSCR)

Foundation for Credit Counselling's principal activities are to provide free debt advice to the financially distressed and following advice either via telephone or online, to provide a range of debt management solutions to meet client needs such as debt management plans and a range of insolvency solutions.

Causes: The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty · website · Get email alerts

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the group ended the year with a net surplus of £2.7m and total reserves of £15.9m, which falls within the Board-approved policy range of £10m to £18m. The charity reported strong liquidity with £9.3m in cash and cash equivalents, well above the FCA-mandated minimum of £5.25m. The auditor confirmed that the use of the going concern basis was appropriate with no material uncertainties identified.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by PKF Littlejohn LLP. Discloses 3 of 6 completeness components.

Property (HM Land Registry)

7 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (0 freehold); recorded price paid £262k. All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

Trustpilot: StepChange Debt Charity scores 4.6/5 from 2,671 reviews (source) — reviews usually concern the charity’s shops or services, not its charitable performance.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook (18,535 likes)

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/12/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~2.6 months of spending — below the median for charities its size (median 4.6 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (71% of income) — components as reported reconcile to the return’s total income; not from the accounts narrative.

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 3.0% of total income — below the median for charities its size (3.8%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Barbara Helen Dean
• Christopher Mark Wood
• Elizabeth Mary Harding
• Janet Pope · trustee of 1 other charity
• Lesley Jane Titcomb
• Lisa Jane Mellor
• Michael St John Ashley · trustee of 1 other charity
• Nicholas Michael Caplan
• Ramondeep Kaur
• Sean Lynskey
• Susan Acton
• Yvonne Jean Klimaytys

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Northern Ireland · Scotland · Throughout England And Wales

Income and spending

Common questions

Known funders

Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.

Funders of similar charities

Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with CENTRE FOR RESPONSIBLE CREDIT LTD.

• CENTRE FOR RESPONSIBLE CREDIT LTD income £385k
• MONEY ADVICE TRUST income £19.9m
• THE COUNSELLING FOUNDATION income £2.1m
• COMMUNITY MONEY ADVICE LTD income £512k
• CHELMSFORD COUNSELLING FOUNDATION income £268k
• GATEWAY M40 income £309k

Side by side with its peers

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.