'Breathing space' bill to provide up to a year's respite from drivers of debt

Former_MSE_Lucinda

People who are experiencing money troubles could soon benefit from up to a year's 'breathing space' from the drivers of worsening debt if new legal proposals are given the go-ahead...

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'Breathing space' bill to provide up to a year's respite from drivers of debt '

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sourcrates

This is an excellent idea.

Basically the situation we have now gives the debtor little leeway in trying to find a suitable solution to there debt problem.
Creditors hound you with letters, emails, phone calls, but little in the way of serious action, but they give you the impression something bad will happen if you don't agree to a deal within there ridiculously short timescale.

It's the creditor contact most people find difficult, unless your accustomed to dealing with this kind of thing, it can be quite daunting, especially when DCA's become involved.

People should have more time to make the right choice on how to tackle there debt, as many are pressurised into making bad decisions, such as starting an IVA when it might not be suitable, so yes, I'm all for it.

CIS

At the moment the main issue I can see with it would be to make sure it isn't abused and that it's used for it's real purpose only. If it's implemented, used and monitored properly then it may be useful however it cannot be seen to be an easier option of avoiding debt - like some other options which have become available over the last few years.

It will be interesting to have a read of the actual draft bill.

Craig

MARTYM8`

Surely tackling the symptom not the problem - why are they in debt.

Reminds me of the tax credit hoo haa after that woman made her speech on Question time which led to Osborne backing down. Her main concern was that she wouldnt be able to pay her rent if she lost her tax credits. Maybe the answer was to provide more affordable housing - rather than keep tax credits. You could finance millions of new council houses for the £30bn a year spent on tax credits - let alone the £26bn spent on housing benefit.

I expect quite a lot of those families with debt problems are in the mess they are in because of housing costs - but we cant allow those to fall can we!

sourcrates

It really depends if you want to go the whole Hogg and do a root and branch clear up, many people post on this forum, asking for help with 15-20k of debt or more, when they only earn £12,000 a year, unaffordable lending is just another part of the problem, I could go on, but I think you get my drift.

Basically if your that deep in debt, you need breathing space to sort yourself out, dosent matter how you got there, constant hounding by creditors only leads to bad decisions.