In a damning report the Treasury Select Committee has called into question whether the Money Advice Service (MAS) should continue to exist. The Committee has asked the government to commission an independent review into MAS to be completed no later than summer 2014 after it found the service is “not fit for purpose”. It recommended the organisation reallocate some of its funds from money advice to debt advice and that it be given greater flexibility on the proportion of its budget spent on those two services. The report found that its initial failure to consult and build relationships with existing organisations in the sector resulted in MAS duplicating what was already being provided in the private and charitable sectors. It also recognised “the very large amounts” spent on marketing in the Service’s early years. Chairman of the sub-committee, George Mudie MP, said: “It is far from clear that it has adopted the right strategy or even that it is performing the correct role.....Read more here