DRO Consultation

fatbelly

There's a government consultation on expanding the limits of the DRO criteria.

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/debt-relief-orders/debt-relief-orders-consultation-on-changes-to-the-monetary-eligibility-criteria

Anyone can contribute - cut-off date 26 Feb

The proposal is

• Increase the total amount of debt allowable to £30,000 (from £20,000);
• Increase the value of assets owned by the individual to £2,000 (from £1000). We are not proposing to change the items excluded from this calculation nor make any change to the £1,000 limit on the value of a domestic motor vehicle; and
• Increase the level of surplus income to £100 (from £50) per month.

We believe that increasing the current monetary eligibility criteria for DROs to the levels proposed above will help more vulnerable people facing financial difficulty access appropriate debt relief. If the statutory debt level is increased much above £30,000 there is only a marginal increase in those people eligible for a DRO, unless the asset level and/or surplus monthly income limits were also raised further, which would undermine the ethos that those that can pay should do so.

By increasing the asset, income and debt thresholds as proposed around 15,500 more people could be eligible for a DRO, representing a 58% increase on the number of individuals who obtained one in 2019/20.