What is Breathing Space?

The UK Government introduced legislation called The Debt Respite Scheme (Breathing Space Moratorium and Mental Health Crisis Moratorium) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020, which will come into force from May 4 2021.

This offers people who are normally resident in England and Wales who receive professional debt advice access to a ‘breathing space’ period in which interest, fees and charges are frozen or refunded and enforcement action is paused in relation to certain debts.

There are two types of breathing space available:

• A breathing space moratorium – generally lasting for 60 days
• A mental health crisis moratorium – It lasts as long as the person's mental health crisis treatment, plus 30 days.

I’m a customer, how do I get a Breathing Space period?

You’ll need to talk to a FCA approved Debt Advisor. They will look at your individual circumstances and advise if Breathing Space is an option for you. For more information on getting a Debt Advisor, please visit MoneyHelper.

Under the legislation, we can only provide a Breathing Space period to a customer if a FCA approved Debt Advisor tells us to do so. Once they do this, we will write to you to let you know how Breathing Space will help you with any debts you have with us.