Debt

Problem debt is when you cannot afford to pay what you owe, not just when the bills feel heavy. The signs are clear enough: you need debt advice if you cannot afford to pay more than you do now, or if you are struggling to make payments or making reduced payments¹. Around that point, many people start missing priority bills, borrowing to repay borrowing, or avoiding calls from creditors. None of those reactions is unusual, and none of them leaves you without options.

The most important fact on this page is that free, confidential help exists across the whole of the UK. There are free advice services that can help, and they are not a taster for a paid product². Charities such as StepChange Debt Charity, Citizens Advice and the government backed MoneyHelper service all provide advice at no cost, and creditors themselves are increasingly expected to point customers towards that help rather than simply chase harder³. Getting advice early widens your choices: some solutions only work before court action starts, and creditors may be less likely to take action against you if they know you are getting debt advice².

What follows is the full picture: how to sort your debts into the ones that must be dealt with first, how to build a budget that shows what you can really afford, what informal and formal solutions exist, what protection Breathing Space gives you, and what creditors, collectors and bailiffs can and cannot legally do. Where the rules differ between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, the differences are set out plainly.

Free debt help: where to get it

The starting point for anyone struggling with debt is free, impartial advice, and in the UK you have several routes to it. StepChange Debt Charity offers free and impartial debt advice¹. Citizens Advice offers free advice on debt and other money problems¹⁰. MoneyHelper is a government backed service that can help you find a way forward if you are worried about money and finding it difficult to know where to start¹⁰, offering free, impartial money and pension guidance backed by government⁴. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme, which deals with the fallout when financial firms fail, also points people towards free debt advice from organisations including StepChange, Which? and Citizens Advice³.

In Scotland, the Scottish Government supports organisations to give free debt advice¹¹, and Shelter Scotland provides housing related money advice that covers debt². In Northern Ireland, nidirect, the official government information service, publishes guidance on debt management plans and repayment options and directs people to free and independent advice from organisations like Advice NI⁸. Whichever nation you live in, the advice itself costs nothing and is confidential.

One warning matters more than any other here. Some private companies say they give free debt advice, but they often charge money for their debt solutions². The fee comes out of the money you pay in, which means less goes to your creditors and the debt lasts longer. The dedicated comparison of free debt charities and fee-charging companies explains how to tell them apart, and how to tell if a debt adviser is legitimate covers the checks worth making. MoneyHelper states plainly that it will never contact you out of the blue or charge anyone for its services, and the Money and Pensions Service has never, and will never, turn up at your home or contact you out of the blue by phone, WhatsApp, email or text¹³. Anyone claiming to be from a free service while charging you or cold calling is not that service.

You can reach MoneyHelper by phone, webchat or WhatsApp, with webchat hours Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm and closed at weekends and on bank holidays¹⁴. UK calls are free and may be recorded¹⁴. If English or Welsh is not your first language, an interpreter can be found to help¹⁴. Citizens Advice helplines in England and Wales also operate Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm¹⁵.

Priority and non-priority debts: which to deal with first

Not all debts are equal, and the order in which you deal with them is not about who is shouting loudest. It is about what each creditor can do to you if you do not pay. Priority debts are the ones with serious consequences attached: losing your home, losing your energy supply, being made bankrupt quickly, or even prison in a small number of cases such as persistent council tax non-payment. Non-priority debts are still owed, still enforceable through the courts, but the immediate consequences of falling behind are less severe.

The examples are consistent across the guidance. Rent arrears are a priority debt because your landlord might evict you from your home if you do not pay⁵. Mortgage arrears, energy bills and secured personal loans are priority debts for the same kind of reason⁵. On the other side, money you owe to your bank is a non-priority debt¹⁶, and credit card debt, bank loans, doorstep lender debt and buy-now-pay-later debt are all classed as non-priority⁵.

The practical rule is to work out offers to priority creditors first, because they have stronger powers to get their money back, and to deal with them before working out what to do about non-priority creditors¹⁸. This feels counter-intuitive to many people, because non-priority creditors are often the ones making the most noise, with daily calls and letters. But a credit card company cannot evict you, and a bank cannot cut off your gas supply. Paying the aggressive creditor first and falling behind on rent is the single most damaging mistake people make.

That does not mean ignoring non-priority debts. It means sequencing: secure the roof and the essentials first, then share whatever is genuinely left between everyone else. The full guide to priority and non-priority debts goes into each category in detail, and there are dedicated pages for council tax arrears, rent arrears and energy and water arrears.

What happens if you do not pay a priority debt

The consequences of ignoring a priority debt arrive faster and bite harder than most people expect. With rent arrears, your landlord might evict you from your home if you do not pay⁵. With mortgage arrears, the lender can eventually take possession of the property, though the law says mortgage lenders must treat you fairly and take your circumstances into account, and there are pre-action requirements they must follow before going to court²⁰. With energy arrears, suppliers can use a debt collection agency or get a court warrant to fit a pre-payment meter⁹.

The pattern in every case is that the creditor has a power the others do not have, and using it does not depend on the size of the debt in the way people assume. A few hundred pounds of council tax arrears can lead to enforcement, deductions from benefits or, ultimately, committal proceedings, while several thousand pounds on a credit card cannot. This is why the advice sector is so consistent about the order of dealing with debts.

The counterweight is that priority creditors also tend to have the most structured help available. Mortgage lenders must treat you fairly and take your circumstances into account²⁰, and before certain court proceedings in Scotland the creditor must provide the debtor with information about sources of advice and assistance in relation to management of debt²¹. Water companies in England and Wales are expected, under the Paying Fair Guidelines, to offer customers access to holistic debt advice to help them maximise their incomes, particularly at the first indication that a customer is struggling to pay, with customer consent to be passed to the organisation²². If you are struggling, the answer is to contact the priority creditor early, before enforcement starts, and to get an adviser to help you negotiate. The pages on help for homeowners in arrears and how lenders must treat you when you fall behind set out what you can ask for.

Making a budget and working out what you can afford

Every debt solution, informal or formal, starts from the same place: a budget that shows what money comes in, what goes out, and what is left. Making a budget helps you understand the money coming in each month, the money going out each month, savings you could make, and what you can afford to pay towards your debts¹. Doing the household budget will help you decide what your options are for dealing with your debts¹⁸, and once you know how much you have left over to pay your creditors, you will be able to decide your best option for dealing with them¹⁸.

A budget built for debt advice is not the same as a casual spending diary. Advisers use standard formats, the Standard Financial Statement in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and the Common Financial Tool in Scotland, which set out how much a household reasonably needs to live on before anything is offered to creditors. That figure protects you: it is the reason a creditor cannot demand your food money, and it is why offers made through an adviser carry more weight than offers made alone. The guide to budgeting for repayments explains how these work.

When preparing a budget in response to mortgage arrears, official guidance is to get your adviser's help to prepare a budget of your income and outgoings, to work out whether you can afford to pay the mortgage instalment and arrears over a period of time²³. The same logic applies to every priority debt. It can also help to let creditors know on your budget if you have considered whether you are able to use your assets to make lump-sum payments off your debts¹⁸.

Two practical points from the advice sector are worth keeping. First, when money is tight, it is very hard to stick to repaying debts when an important bill needs paying or the car or house needs an urgent repair; regularly putting a bit of money aside for such expenses spreads out those payments and makes budgeting much less stressful¹⁸. Second, check whether your income can be increased at all: a Budgeting Loan can help you pay for things like your rent, things you need at home and some debts²⁴, and Pension Credit might provide extra help if you are a carer, severely disabled, or responsible for a child or young person²⁵. The page on emergency grants and loans lists what exists.

Asking creditors for help: payment breaks, reduced payments and frozen interest

Before any formal solution, there is a whole layer of informal help, and it starts with simply contacting the creditor. Creditors may agree new payment terms or pause debt collection for a while¹. That single sentence covers a lot: reduced monthly payments, a temporary payment break while your income recovers, an agreement to hold off on enforcement, and in many cases freezing interest and charges so the debt stops growing while you repay it. The page on informal payment arrangements covers how to make an offer and what to put in writing.

Some of this is written into the rules rather than left to goodwill. Under the Debt Arrangement Scheme in Scotland, a debtor who is an individual may make a request to the money adviser for a short term financial crisis payment break in the circumstances set out in the legislation²⁶. Water companies in England and Wales are expected to offer customers access to holistic debt advice at the first indication that a customer is struggling to pay²². The Money and Pensions Service launched a new Supportive debt recovery toolkit in September 2026, replacing its 2021 version, which aims to better support customers experiencing vulnerability, mental health challenges or economic abuse and to strengthen collaboration between creditors and debt advisers²⁷.

Creditors do not have to agree, and that is the limit of informal help. If a creditor refuses your offer, they can continue to contact you, ask for payment or even take you to court⁸. The page on what to do when a creditor refuses your repayment offer covers the next steps, and whether creditors have to freeze interest and charges sets out where you stand. But an offer backed by a budget from a free adviser, showing you are paying what you can genuinely afford, is harder for a creditor to refuse than a bare request, and a creditor who knows you are getting debt advice may be less likely to take action against you².

Debt management plans: free from debt charities

A debt management plan, or DMP, is an informal arrangement in which you pay what you can afford to your non-priority creditors each month, usually through a provider who shares the money out. It is not a court order and it is not insolvency: the debts still exist, interest may or may not be frozen, and the plan lasts as long as it takes. What it does is turn a dozen unmanageable demands into one affordable payment and give you someone standing between you and the creditors.

The critical point about cost. Organisations like the StepChange Debt Charity offer free debt management plans⁸. Every pound you pay in goes to your creditors. Fee-charging companies offer the same kind of plan but take their fee from your payments, which means the debt takes longer to clear. Official guidance in Northern Ireland is to get advice before setting up a plan with a provider, and notes you can get free and independent advice on debt management plans, or any kind of debt problem, from organisations like Advice NI⁸. A provider should discuss all the possible options available to you to deal with your debt problem, not only the plan they sell⁸.

A DMP is not right for everything. It deals with non-priority debts; priority arrears such as rent, mortgage, council tax and energy need to be handled separately and first. Creditors are not bound by the plan, and if they do not agree to freeze interest they can continue to contact you, ask for payment or even take you to court⁸. The plan is also flexible in your favour: because it is informal, you can change or stop it if your circumstances change, which the guides to missing a payment on a DMP and the comparison of a debt consolidation loan versus a DMP cover.

One protection is worth knowing. If a debt management plan provider authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority fails, FSCS may be able to help, but its protection excludes debt advice itself²⁸. The full guide to debt management plans explains how they work, and the comparison of DMPs and IVAs sets out when the informal route stops being enough.

Breathing Space pauses interest and charges, but only for a while

Breathing Space, formally the Debt Respite Scheme, is a statutory protection that gives people in problem debt a pause in creditor enforcement. It provides temporary legal protections from creditor enforcement action for people experiencing problem debt, including pauses on enforcement action and freezes on most interest and charges⁷. During the period, creditors named in the scheme cannot contact you to demand payment, cannot take enforcement action, and most interest and charges stop being added. It is the closest thing the system has to a legal circuit breaker.

Access to the scheme runs through debt advice: you cannot apply for it yourself, a debt adviser must confirm you meet the conditions and administer it. That is deliberate, because the purpose of the pause is to give you the space to work out a lasting solution with advice, not simply to stop the letters. The standard period lasts 60 days, and there is a separate, open ended version for people receiving mental health crisis treatment, covered in the guide to mental health crisis Breathing Space.

The limits matter as much as the protection. It is temporary: when the period ends, the protections end, and enforcement can resume unless a solution has been put in place. Some debts are not covered, and the pause does not write anything off. In Northern Ireland, the scheme was extended there by UK statutory instrument, with the separate Northern Ireland Debt Respite Bill withdrawn, so the protection applies UK wide but with its own administrative arrangements⁷. The dedicated guide to Breathing Space covers eligibility, which debts qualify and what creditors must do during it, and the narrow guide on whether Breathing Space stops bailiffs, court action and eviction answers the question most people actually have.

When creditors can take you to court or make you bankrupt

If informal arrangements fail or never get started, creditors have a ladder of escalation, and it helps to know the rungs. For non-priority debts, the usual route is a county court claim leading to a county court judgment, then enforcement of that judgment. The guides to county court judgments, how creditors enforce a court judgment and bailiffs cover that process in detail.

At the top of the ladder is creditor bankruptcy. In England and Wales, a creditor owed £5,000 or more can apply to the court to have the individual declared bankrupt⁶. The process usually begins with a statutory demand, a formal written demand for payment. If the debtor ignores the statutory demand or cannot repay the money, the creditor can apply to a court to make someone bankrupt³¹. The debtor has 21 days to respond before the creditor can act on the demand³². To bankrupt someone, a creditor has to present a bankruptcy petition to a court³³. The Insolvency Service publishes a guide for creditors explaining the procedures if you are owed money by an individual in bankruptcy or a company in compulsory liquidation³⁴.

Scotland has its own system. In some cases, creditors can ask the court to make you bankrupt³⁶, a process called sequestration, and the Accountant in Bankruptcy publishes guidance on how bankruptcy applications work there³⁶. The guides to sequestration and the Minimal Asset Process and diligence in Scotland cover the Scottish equivalents. The guides to statutory demands and creditor bankruptcy petitions and bankruptcy cover the England and Wales process, and there is a separate page on bankruptcy in Northern Ireland.

Two things are worth holding on to. First, court action is not the end of the road: a judgment can often be paid in instalments, and enforcement can be challenged or suspended. Second, bankruptcy by a creditor is rare compared with the numbers of people who enter insolvency themselves, but the threat of it is used, and knowing the £5,000 threshold and the 21 day response window tells you how real any particular threat is³².

How creditors must treat you when collecting a debt

The law and the regulators set boundaries around how creditors and collectors behave, and those boundaries are enforceable. Mortgage lenders are the clearest example: the law says they must treat you fairly and take your circumstances into account²⁰. In Scotland, before certain court proceedings, the creditor must provide the debtor with information about sources of advice and assistance in relation to management of debt²¹. These are duties, not courtesies.

On the phone, the rules are specific. The people you owe call because they want a payment³⁷. They can call you at work if you gave a work number on the credit application form, but they must stop if you tell them³⁷. They cannot discuss your debt with anyone but you unless you give permission or the debt is in joint names³⁷. Each of those rules gives you something concrete to say: "do not call me at work", "do not discuss this with anyone else", and a complaint if they carry on.

If you owe money to HMRC, you can get free, confidential and independent advice from a debt adviser, and official guidance sets out what to do if you owe money to HMRC³⁸. If you have a New Style Jobseeker's Allowance overpayment, you contact Debt Management to make a repayment³⁹. The common thread is that even the state's own debt collection has a process, and advice is available before it gets to enforcement.

Where a financial firm treats you badly in connection with debt, the Financial Ombudsman Service can consider complaints involving the cost of living¹⁰, and its remit covers how lenders and collectors have handled your account. The page on how lenders must treat you when you fall behind sets out the expectations in full, and consumer protection in UK financial services explains where to complain and when.

Where creditors cross the line: harassment and misleading letters

Some behaviour is not just poor practice, it is unlawful. It may count as harassment if the people you owe call you too often³⁷. Harassment is a legal term here, and a pattern of excessive calls, threats or pressure can found a claim as well as a complaint to the firm and to the Financial Ombudsman Service. The narrow guide on when a debt collector calls, visits or threatens you covers what counts and what to do about it.

Not every letter about a debt is genuine. You receive letters in your name from solicitors or debt collectors for debts that are not yours is listed by the Information Commissioner's Office as a warning sign of identity theft⁴⁰. If that happens, the debt is not yours to pay, but it will not go away by ignoring it: the ICO's guidance on identity theft sets out the steps to take, and the guide to debt collectors and sold debts covers your rights when a debt is passed on. The wider guide to scams and fraud covers the fake letters and calls that use debt fear as a hook.

Misleading letters are their own category. Some letters are designed to look like court documents or bailiff notices when they are not, and some firms use official looking layouts to frighten people into paying them first. If a letter claims court action has started, you can check: court claims come with specific forms and deadlines, and the guide to replying to a letter before claim shows what a genuine pre-action letter looks like and what you must do when one arrives. MoneyHelper's Financial Crimes and Scams Unit can be reached on 0800 015 4402¹³.

Extra support if you are vulnerable, bereaved or facing economic abuse

The debt system recognises, imperfectly but increasingly, that people behind on payments are often dealing with something else as well. The Money and Pensions Service's Supportive debt recovery toolkit, launched in September 2026, is specifically designed to better support customers experiencing vulnerability, mental health challenges or economic abuse²⁷. Bailiff guidance makes the same point from the enforcement side: you may be able to get extra time to make a payment or get debt advice if you are a vulnerable person, for example with mental health problems or serious illness⁴¹.

For bereavement, the position is often misunderstood. You are not automatically responsible for a husband's, wife's or civil partner's debts⁴². Debts are paid from the estate of the person who died, and only where there are assets; official guidance in Northern Ireland covers what happens to debt when someone dies⁴². The guide to joint debts and your partner's debts explains where liability does and does not pass.

For economic abuse, where a partner or ex partner has controlled your money or borrowed in your name, specialist advice matters because standard debt solutions may not fit. StepChange can refer victims to specialist organisations who are experts in coerced debt and economic abuse, and Refuge has more information on economic abuse and provides support. The guide to debt and economic abuse covers coerced borrowing and where to get help. For gambling related harm, Citizens Advice offers a free service including help with gambling problems.

On pensions, a specific warning. Official guidance states that if you are behind on your mortgage, rent, credit card or other debt payments, a pension might not be the right step now⁴³. Anyone urging you to unlock pension savings to pay a debt is a red flag in itself. Free retirement guidance is available from MoneyHelper¹⁴, and the guide to pensions covers the basics.

Energy debt and help with bills

Energy arrears are a priority debt, and they have been growing. Domestic energy debt and arrears in Britain topped £5 billion for the first time, according to Ofgem's social obligations report, a 4.8% quarterly and 13% year on year rise in domestic customer debt and arrears over 91 days⁹. At the same time, the Ofgem price cap rose from 1 October 2026 to £1,723 a year for an average household paying by direct debit, up around 4%⁹. More households are falling behind at the same time as bills are rising.

If you stop paying your bills, energy suppliers can use a debt collection agency or get a court warrant to fit a pre-payment meter⁹. A warrant for forced entry is not something that happens without notice, but the direction of travel is clear, which is why energy arrears belong in the priority column and why contacting the supplier early matters. Suppliers have hardship funds and repayment schemes, and grants exist outside the supplier too: the British Gas Energy Trust Energy Support Grant opened on 1 October 2026 with grants of up to £1,700 and a simplified application process for households in energy debt⁹. In Northern Ireland, a £100 home heating oil support voucher scheme opened for applications on 9 September 2026 for 340,000 eligible households⁹.

The guide to energy and water bill arrears covers repayment arrangements, hardship funds and what suppliers must do before enforcement. Water debt has its own framework: water companies in England and Wales are expected to offer customers access to holistic debt advice at the first indication that a customer is struggling to pay²², and water supply cannot be cut off in the way energy can, which changes the negotiation.

Differences across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

The advice is free everywhere, but the solutions are not identical, and using the wrong nation's rules wastes time you may not have. In England and Wales the main formal options are individual voluntary arrangements, debt relief orders and bankruptcy, with county courts handling claims. In Scotland, the Debt Arrangement Scheme, protected trust deeds and sequestration do the equivalent jobs: trust deeds are the Scottish equivalent to IVAs, where you pay an agreed amount based on what you can afford each month³⁵, and sequestration includes the Minimal Asset Process for people with few assets. The comparisons of sequestration or the Debt Arrangement Scheme and protected trust deeds or sequestration cover the Scottish choices.

Northern Ireland largely mirrors England and Wales but with its own court system and its own guidance through nidirect, which covers debt management plans, repayment options and what happens when a lender takes action against you²³. The Debt Respite (Breathing Space) Scheme was extended to Northern Ireland by UK statutory instrument, with the separate Northern Ireland Bill withdrawn⁷. Scotland's payment break rights sit inside the Debt Arrangement Scheme legislation rather than Breathing Space²⁶.

Support services also differ by nation. The Scottish Government supports organisations to give free debt advice¹¹, and mygov.scot sets out benefits and support including Budgeting Loans²⁴. MoneyHelper offers a bilingual service, with tools and helplines in English and Welsh⁴⁴. Citizens Advice operates across England and Wales, with separate Citizens Advice Scotland and Advice NI services north of the border. The guide to money in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland covers the wider differences, and the full guide to debt solutions across the UK maps every option to the nation it belongs to.

Frequently asked questions

Does getting debt advice affect my credit score?

No. Debt advice itself does not affect your credit score, because talking to an adviser is not recorded on your credit file⁹. Some debt solutions do affect it, for example a debt management plan, an individual voluntary arrangement, a debt relief order or bankruptcy. If you are worried, a free adviser can explain which options would appear on your file and for how long before you commit to anything. Creditors may also be less likely to take action against you if they know you are getting debt advice².

Can a creditor discuss my debt with my partner or family?

No. The people you owe cannot discuss your debt with anyone but you unless you give permission or the debt is in joint names³⁷. If a creditor phones your partner, a parent or anyone else and talks about what you owe, that is a breach of the rules and you can complain. You can give a creditor permission to speak to someone on your behalf, for example a debt adviser or a family member, but that is your choice.

Am I responsible for my partner's debts if we do a household budget together?

No. Working out a joint budget does not make you liable for someone else's debts. You are only responsible for a debt if it is in your name or in joint names with the other person. Marriage does not change this: you will not be responsible for your partner's debts or financial obligations when you marry⁹. If a debt is in joint names, each of you can be pursued for the full amount, which is different from being liable for each other's separate debts.

Can creditors call me at work?

Only if you gave a work number on the credit application form. If you did, creditors can call you at work, but you can tell them to stop and they must³⁷. Calls from creditors are about wanting a payment, and if the timing or frequency of calls causes you problems at work, you can ask them to contact you another way. If they keep calling after you have told them to stop, that may count as harassment and you can complain.

Should I pay a company to deal with my debts?

Be careful. Some private companies say they give free debt advice, but they often charge money for their debt solutions, and those fees come out of the money you pay in². Charities and publicly funded services offer genuinely free advice and free debt management plans⁸, so there is usually no need to pay. A free adviser will look at your whole situation and explain every option, including formal solutions, rather than only the ones they sell.

Can I get debt help if I live abroad but my debts are in the UK?

Moving abroad does not stop lenders chasing you. They can still take court action against you, and the debt will still need to be dealt with if you ever return to the UK⁹. Free UK debt charities can still advise you by phone or online while you are abroad, so contact one before deciding what to do. Recovering a debt across borders is more complicated for creditors too, and official guidance suggests getting legal advice where a debt crosses national boundaries³¹.

Can creditors pressure me to use my pension to pay debts?

Official guidance is clear that if you are behind on your mortgage, rent, credit card or other debt payments, a pension might not be the right step now⁴³. Accessing pension money early can leave you worse off in retirement and may not solve the underlying problem. Free debt advisers look at your income, budget and options before anything else. If someone is pressuring you to release pension money to pay them, that is a warning sign, and you can get help from MoneyHelper or a debt charity first.

Is debt advice different in Scotland?

The advice itself is free and confidential, just as in the rest of the UK, and the Scottish Government supports organisations to give free debt advice¹¹. The solutions differ, though. Scotland has its own options, including the Debt Arrangement Scheme, protected trust deeds and sequestration, which sit in place of some England and Wales solutions³⁵. A Scottish adviser will explain which apply to you. Breathing Space works across England and Wales, with the scheme extended to Northern Ireland by statutory instrument⁷.