ITV Documentaries

Cash in Hand! Payday Loans (2015x17)

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Cash In Hand! Payday Loans ‘No-one wakes up and says, ‘I want to become a debt collector.’’ “My dad responds to my job by saying I work in finance. It’s like a family secret.” For the first time ever viewers will get to see the inner workings of the controversial payday loan industry as cameras film the team in the collections department of lenders Uncle Buck. Founded by Steve Murray 10 years ago, from the backroom of a pawn broking shop, the payday lender now employs a staff of almost 70 at its offices in a discreet corner of Kent. Cameras join the company’s management and collection agents at the beginning of May, providing an insight into the range of characters, egos and working culture in a team in which employees must reach a collection target of £270,000 by the end of the month in order to receive their bonus, supplementing their £20,000 basic salary. Cash In Hand! Payday Loans captures the tension of often cat-and-mouse exchanges between customers being pursued for unpaid loans and the team members whose bonuses depend on finding ways to make them agree to pay up. Massimo is Uncle Buck’s Head of Collections, and his challenge is to keep his troops upbeat without making them over zealous. He says: “We need to create an atmosphere where the guys are motivated and happy, because they’re speaking to people that have some kind of issue. But not putting things in place that almost incentivise them to do the wrong thing.” An additional goal for the collections team is to get their name on the ‘Top Performer‘ shield, a champions-of-champions prize for all-round excellence. However, those who work in the money-lending business don’t always want the world to know about it. One worker says: “My dad responds to my job by saying I work in finance. It’s like a family secret.” Another adds: “No-one wakes up and says, ‘I want to become a debt collector.’’’ With just 10 per c