Michael Swayze's Community Resources

Tag: National Consumer Law Center

  • Consumer Watchdog Agency Endangered

    An article appeared in yesterday’s New York Times print edition with details on how the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), created in 2011 by Congress in the aftermath of the housing crisis of the Great Recession, is being systematically attacked and dismantled. (For the NYT article by Stacy Cowley, click here.)

    A friend and subscriber send me a note to “join in taking personal action in support of reversing the potential elimination of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.” Yes, Jim D., consider it done. Below is more background information and my plan on how to combat the illegal and unconstitutional actions of Donald Trump and his team.

    In the past few days, the CFPB Director was fired, Elon Musk posted “CFPB RIP”, bureau employees were locked out of their offices, and the Project 2025 author and new Office of Management and Budget head, Russell Vought, gave unvetted DOGE employees access to CFPB data systems containing highly sensitive consumer and business information.

    The National Consumer Law Center, a leading consumer advocacy group, supplies the following:

    Financial companies have shown time and time again that they cannot police themselves. The Administration is trying to shut down an agency created by Congress to fix problems that caused over eight million people to lose their jobs and almost four million families to lose their homes during the Great Recession. The CFPB saves homes, stops fraud that ruins lives, and enforces key laws, winning $21 billion in relief for over 200 million people harmed by credit bureaus, big banks, debt collectors and predatory lenders.

    The illegal actions to shut down the CFPB halt work to safeguard people’s private information, protect bank customers when hackers raid their accounts, and help families save their homes when they’re unfairly rushed to foreclosure. The CFPB now appears poised to roll over and play dead in pending lawsuits by big banks and credit bureaus, letting them overturn new rules returning $5 billion in excessive overdraft fees to struggling families and removing medical debt from credit reports.” NCLC has joined with Democracy Forward to move to intervene in the overdraft fee litigation, and we are working to preserve the medical debt rule.

    The plan I propose includes the following:

    • Attend rallies. There is strength in numbers and you will feel part of a community.
    • Phone and email your elected officials, now. There is a list on this website of New Jersey and Pennsylvania Senators and Representative, here. For Members of Congress in the other 48 states visit https://www.congress.gov/members.
    • Contribute to organizations that support our rights and freedoms. My featured organization today is the National Consumer Law Project, a group I’ve been associated with for twenty-five years.
    • Join national, state, and particularly local political groups. My current favorites are: Indivisible, Indivisible Philadelphia, Mt. Airy Democrats, Turn PA Blue, and Vote the Ridge to name just a few.
    • Vote every election, twice a year.
    • Do something.

  • EITC Awareness Day – January 27, 2012

    The Internal Revenue Service has declared January 27, 2012 as Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Awareness Day. It is a program enacted in 1975 during the Nixon Administration and expanded during the Reagan years. Although technically a tax program, it is considered one of the principal social programs for working families. Nationally, in 2011 over 26 million taxpayers received $59 billion in EITC tax refunds. EITC rewards work and reduces poverty.

    An IRS spokesperson recently stated, “If you worked any part of last year (2011) and your income was around $49,000 or less see if you qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit, or EITC.” It can put extra money in a family’s pocket, up to $5700. In New Jersey in 2011 552,000 households received $1.17 billion via the EITC credit, with an average refund of $2,117. For a single parent with one child it is estimated that EITC effectively raises wages by $1.25 an hour.

    An EITC Tax Tip Video makes a number of suggestions. They include:
    1) Use free brand name tax software through IRS’ Free File program if your adjusted gross income is $57,000 or less. For details visit the IRS Free File: Do Your Federal Taxes For Free page.
    2) Utilize the services of any of the 400 nationwide IRS Taxpayer Assistance Centers to get face-to-face tax help. In New Jersey there are twelve local offices located in Cherry Hill, Edison, Fairfield, Freehold, Jersey City, Mays Landing, Mountainside, Newark, Paramus, Parsippany, Paterson, and Trenton. Visit the link for locations and telephone numbers.
    3) Take advantage of local and free tax preparation sites – known as VITA or AARP Tax-Aide sites – during the tax season. For a comprehensive and up-to-date list of New Jersey tax assistance sites visit the NJ 2-1-1 website. To locate the nearest VITA site, call 800-906-9887, if you do not have Internet access. In New Jersey, dial 2-1-1 or 877-652-1148 to find the closest free tax preparation site.

    There are a couple tips that I also would like to pass on. They fall into the category of consumer protection and financial literacy. Does it make sense to pay $100 or even $200 to a commercial tax preparer if you can have your tax preparation done for free and get your refund via direct deposit? You should be familiar with the term “rapid refund” and currently known as a “refund anticipation check”. They are nothing more than expensive loans. In the consumer affairs community these services are known as Refund Anticipation Loans or RALs. For a good explanation of how expensive RALs are see a recent National Consumer Law Center report. Fortunately, 2011 may be the last year in the life of these loan schemes.

    In the past couple years a number of VITA programs have partnered with financial institutions to enable tax filers to open accounts with the idea of getting a tax refund quicker via direct deposit. New Jersey consumers are fortunate in having available to them low-cost, low-volume basic checking services known as New Jersey Consumer Checking Accounts. If you want to promote financial literacy and encourage consumer education spread the word about consumer checking accounts.

    For additional information on tax preparation programs and organizations that sponsor them, visit the New Jersey Community Resources’ NJ Earned Income Tax Credit web page.