New Breathing Space Regulations – What They Mean For You

Debt management is an understandably sensitive and emotive undertaking. As a company that assists clients with PCN recovery on a regular basis, we are experts in this area and fully aware of the impact it can have on members of the public.

As you may be aware, a new statutory scheme known as Breathing Space was introduced in May 2021, providing debtors with greater legal protection from creditors. There are two types of Breathing Space:

Standard Breathing Space

Available to anyone with problem debt, this provides legal protection from creditor action for up to 60 days. Protections may include pausing of most enforcement action and contact from creditors and freezing most interest and charges on debt.

Mental Health Crisis Breathing Space

Available to individuals receiving mental health crisis treatment, this offers stronger protections for as long as the treatment lasts, plus 30 days.

For any of our clients involved with the enforcement of debt payment, under the new scheme, you will be notified if a debt owed is in a Breathing Space period. In such circumstances, all action related to the debt must be ceased until the breathing space period ends.

For Imperial customers utilising our Business Processing Unit (BPU), rest assured that our team are fully versed on this change, and will support the processing of Breathing Space arrangements in one of two ways:

1. The Imperial BPU will process the Breathing Space arrangement.
2. The Client (Council or Private Parking Company) will process the Breathing Space arrangement.

Our BPU are happy to process Breathing Space arrangements on behalf of clients, however, given the sensitivities, some clients may feel more comfortable processing Breathing Space arrangements themselves.

More advice for creditors is available online. Should you have any questions about managing debt, or how Imperial’s solutions or BPU can help, please do get in touch.