Hey folks,
This week is Debt Awareness Week .
This campaign (launched by StepChange Debt Charity in 2014) is all about destigmatising debt and encouraging people to get the help they need.
So, we want to know. What one piece of advice would you give to someone currently struggling with debt?
The government’s Breathing Space API is being launched soon and this is going to be really helpful for those in debt crisis or mental health crisis and in debt.
You can read more about it here:
This sounds like such a great idea and so needed
I can’t imagine what a relief it would feel to have those 60 days to get all the advice and help you need, without the worry of further costs and charges making the sitch worse
Indeed. What’s more is that the government have produced an API for this allowing lenders to receive notifications and can then instantly suspend interest or enforcement action etc…
This is a great idea. Do we know if this will show on credit reports?
I’ve thankfully never had to be in the position, but I do think that it’s not helpful when a lot of debt management schemes get a marker placed on a person’s credit report that impact them adversely and can lead them into much more risky debt (I’m thinking payday loans though I accept that area has been cleared up quite a bit of late).
The ability to request a small period of time for legal enforced interest freeze to manage what for a lot of people might just be a momentary blip (moving homes, changing jobs, redundancy etc) without any detriment to their future would be amazing.
I struggle, morally, with quite how much information and power these few (some foreign) companies have over people and their lives and futures.
Rant over 
People accessing breathing space with a debt management company will likely be beyond the stage of not having their credit file marked. Usually this is accessed when debt enforcement is in progress but unmanageable.
While I agree more needs to be done to protect people from accessing payday lenders, I think that is more the responsibility of the regulators and industry than to prevent credit reference agencies being made aware.
Disclosure: I work in the credit and lending industry.
I’ve just seen that the breathing space scheme we were talking about before launched yesterday 
It sure did. It’s been great to work with their API.