The Money Advice Trust has called for debt management firms to be required to inform clients that there are fee-free alternatives.

This follows the news that the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has closed down another 12 fee-charging debt management companies.

Joanna Elson, chief executive of the Money Advice Trust, said: “Problems in the fee-charging debt management industry are worryingly wide-spread. The OFT has now closed over 40% of those companies it investigated last year