A number of constituents have been in touch with me this week about Farepak - the Christmas hamper company which has gone bust.

It’s left many families out of pocket and facing a bleak Christmas, so I am backing moves to ask the big supermarket chains and other retailers to show their Christmas spirit and step in to help the people who’re affected.

It’s a bad situation. People paid Farepak a bit of money each month for vouchers towards a Christmas hamper – doing the responsible thing and saving up for Christmas – but now the company won’t be giving out any of the goods people have saved for.

It’s likely that what money people can get back won’t be the whole amount they paid in, and that is likely to take until after Christmas. The worst thing is that many of the Farepak customers are pensioners and single parent families who can least afford to lose the money they’ve saved.

I’ll do my best to help any Oxford East resident who’s affected – please give my office a call on 305080.

You can find more information on this and other good free advice on what to do by clicking here .

If you know anyone who needs advice, and can’t access the internet, please give me a ring and I’ll print it out and send it to them.

Blackbird Leys Credit Union are to their credit also looking into what they can do by way of reasonable loans to local residents who have lost out. They can be contacted on Oxford 718503.

Thinking more generally, it strikes me that the regulations for these sorts of schemes need attention. They are effectively savings schemes but aren’t covered by the same protections that ‘real’ savings schemes have. So I’ve written to the Government to ask Ministers to look at the regulations covering these schemes.

Also today, I’ve written to the Chief Executives of Sainsburys, Tesco, and Asda asking if they can step in and help out local people who’ve been caught up in Farepak’s collapse. Last year Britain’s top 3 supermarket chains made £3.2 billion profits and it would certainly be nice if they could give Farepak families a helping hand.