A new free service officially known as the Debt Respite Scheme or Breathing Space Scheme was launched by the government on 4th May 2021. The purpose of the scheme is to help people in England and Wales who are struggling with their debts, get that a little bit of extra time to get back on track, without the additional pressure from creditors and debts piling up.

Back in 2009 we looked at what the prospects were at that time for new legislation which would address the then burgeoning problems of personal debt and for many people the looming threat of personal insolvency.

Finding your finances out of control is a pretty unpleasant experience. It can seem as though you have fewer and fewer options, but this may not necessarily be the case.

If you’re going down the route of bankruptcy, insolvency or are considering measures such as an IVA, you’ll need the services of an Insolvency Practitioner. IPs in the UK must be licensed to act in matters of insolvency, and the discipline is regulated by the Insolvency Practitioners’ Association.

If you are in the position of being unable to keep up with your financial commitments and are facing insolvency or bankruptcy, you may need to go through certain legal processes. Insolvency Practitioners are the only professionals who are licensed to carry out certain legal activities within the UK. If your case involves these processes then you will indeed need to use the services of an IP.

An IP, or an Insolvency Practitioner, is a professional who specialises in the field of Insolvency. All IPs in the UK are required to be licensed, and to conform to a set of professional standards. The practise is regulated by the Insolvency Practitioners Association, who also set out the required standards.

Nobody likes to be in debt and if you are to pay off your debts to your creditors the money has to come from your surplus income or from the sale of some or all of your assets or with funds provided by a friend or relation who is willing to help you (whether or not they expect you to repay them in the future) or you must find some way of getting your creditors to accept less than full repayment or from some combination of these – that is, assuming you do not win the lottery!

The anxiety that comes with not being able to manage your debt payments can make life seriously stressful. It can seem like the more things get out of control the fewer options you have left. However, there may be more choices left than you think, and acting promptly and with the right advice is hugely valuable.

At the beginning of 2010 we were looking at the birth of NAMA and wondering what the government might do to help individual consumers who found themselves facing personal insolvency.

When your finances are in trouble, it can seem like your choices are few and far between. There are so many adverts offering instant solutions to debt problems it can be a real task figuring out which ones may actually help you.

It’s difficult to say which debt management methods are going to help you get out of debt without analysing your situation, however Individual Voluntary Arrangements have helped a great many people to sort out their financial difficulties.

Many people purchase vehicles without clearly understanding whether the finance is provided via a HP agreement or an unsecured loan. There is an important difference.

It’s almost that time of year again when thoughts turn to Santa Claus, family re-unions, getting together with friends and the innocent joy of children.

In the current recession many of us are asking ourselves this question. Many more of us are afraid to ask the question and simply adopt the ostrich solution – stick our heads in the sand.

A vehicle may be purchased for cash or by trading in your old vehicle and paying the balance in cash. You may also obtain an unsecured loan and purchase a vehicle using the loan proceeds only or together with cash of your own supplemented by the trade-in value of your own old vehicle.

People understand income. It’s simply money coming in. Wages, salary, pension, child benefit, tax credits, dividends, interest on deposit accounts are all forms of income.

Dreaming about being debt free is as natural as dreaming about achieving any other personal or professional goal. We dream about finding solutions to our personal financial problems which will wipe out our debts quickly.

Oscar Wilde’s claim that a man who pays his bills on time is soon forgotten is probably as true today as it ever was. He also claimed that it was only by not paying one’s bills that one could hope to live in the memory of the commercial classes.

What Shakespeare had to say about debt?

A would-be wit once sought to diminish Shakespeare’s reputation by proclaiming that his literary greatness was tarnished only by the volume of clichés he employed in his writing.