Breathing Space: the 60-day protection from creditors

Breathing Space is a free government scheme that gives you legal protection from the people you owe money to for up to 60 days. While it runs, your creditors must stop collecting the debts included in it, must not contact you about them, and must freeze interest and charges on them¹. Official statistics describe it as giving people legal protections from their creditors for 60 days, with most interest and penalty charges frozen and enforcement paused². The scheme, formally called the Debt Respite Scheme, launched on 4 May 2021 and applies in England and Wales only².

The point of the pause is not to write anything off. It is to give you time to get free debt advice and decide on a way forward, whether that is a debt management plan, an IVA, a debt relief order or bankruptcy, without pressure building underneath you. StepChange, one of the charities that administers it, describes the scheme as giving people up to 60 days to make plans to deal with their debt, without added interest or fees³.

One thing to understand at the outset: you cannot apply for Breathing Space yourself. Only an approved debt adviser can start it, after checking that you qualify and that all your debts are the kind the scheme covers¹. The application is free, and the advice that leads to it is free from the main debt charities.

What Breathing Space does: 60 days without interest, charges or enforcement

A standard Breathing Space does three main things to each debt that is included in it. First, the creditor must stop adding interest, fees, charges and penalties to the debt¹. Second, they must pause any action to collect it, and during a standard Breathing Space they must not contact you about it at all¹. Third, most enforcement is stopped: a creditor cannot start court action against you, cannot start bailiff action, cannot start bankruptcy proceedings against you and cannot issue a statutory demand¹.

The protections are real legal obligations on creditors, not a request or a goodwill arrangement. The scheme exists under the Debt Respite (Breathing Space) Regulations, which provide eligible individual debtors with problem debt a period of protection from their creditors⁶. A creditor who is told you are in Breathing Space cannot, for example, petition to make you bankrupt⁷.

What the scheme does not do is equally important. It does not write off any debt, it does not cover every kind of debt, and it does not last longer than 60 days³. When it ends, creditors can apply interest, charges, fees and penalties again going forward, start or resume court action, and contact you to reclaim the debt. They are not entitled to request anything that accrued during the scheme unless a court order allows it⁸. The debts themselves are unchanged: Breathing Space is a pause, not a solution, and the expectation is that you use the 60 days to set one up.

The scheme is used at scale. There were 4,817 Breathing Space registrations in England and Wales in May 2026, 38% lower than in May 2025⁹. Numbers have been lower since December 2025 after the largest money adviser group by number of cases updated its suitability criteria for its clients to apply for a breathing space¹⁰. In November 2025 there were 7,151 registrations, 7% lower than in November 2024¹¹, and in December 2025 there were 3,884, 31% lower than in December 2024¹².

Standard or mental health crisis Breathing Space: how each one works

There are two versions of the scheme, and they work differently.

The mental health crisis version gives the same protections as the standard one: creditors must stop collecting, must not contact you, and must freeze interest and charges¹. The difference is that it lasts as long as the person is in crisis treatment plus an additional 30 days⁸, and it can be applied for as soon as crisis treatment begins, even if you have had a standard Breathing Space in the last 12 months¹. There is no limit to the number of times you can enter one¹.

To qualify for the mental health crisis version, one of these must apply: you are being held under the Mental Health Act, you have been taken to a safe place under the Mental Health Act, or you are getting crisis care from a specialist mental health team³. An approved mental health professional must make the application and confirm you are receiving crisis treatment¹³. The dedicated page on the mental health crisis Breathing Space covers that version in more detail.

Who can get Breathing Space

For the standard Breathing Space, the eligibility rules are:

• You live in England or Wales¹
• You are unable to repay some or all of your debts as they fall due¹
• You are not currently in a debt relief order (DRO), an individual voluntary arrangement (IVA) or a bankruptcy order¹⁵
• You have not had a Breathing Space in the last 12 months¹
• A debt advice provider agrees the scheme is right for you³

The rule about existing debt solutions matters: you cannot have a Breathing Space if you currently have a DRO, an IVA or a bankruptcy order¹⁵. This is because those solutions already give you legal protection from creditors, so a second layer would add nothing. If you are considering an IVA, Citizens Advice notes that before you start one you could get 60 days of breathing space where your creditors cannot contact you, take action to make you pay, or add interest and charges¹⁶.

Sole traders can include business debts. You can apply for business debts if you are a sole trader, but not if your business is registered for VAT, or if you are in a business partnership and the debt relates solely to the business¹.

For the mental health crisis version, the only eligibility requirement is that you are receiving mental health crisis treatment, certified by an approved mental health professional⁸. You cannot get it if you have a DRO, IVA or bankruptcy order in place¹³.

Which debts are covered and which are not

Most personal debts qualify, as long as you have already missed payments on them. Qualifying debts include credit cards, store cards, personal loans, payday loans, overdrafts, arrears on utility bills, mortgage arrears, rent arrears, council tax debts, tax debts, welfare benefit overpayments unless they are fraudulent, and penalty charge notices⁸. StepChange lists many consumer credit debts, energy and water debts, rent arrears, unpaid council tax, mortgage arrears, benefits overpayments and buy now pay later debt among the debts where you have already missed payments³.

The main exclusions are:

• Secured debts such as mortgages, secured loans and hire purchase agreements: you cannot include the secured lending itself, but you can include any arrears on it, and you must keep up the ongoing payments¹
• Debts incurred after the Breathing Space started⁸
• Fraudulent debts⁸
• Magistrates court fines⁸
• Child maintenance or family court money⁸
• Crisis or budgeting loans from the social fund⁸
• Student loans⁸
• Personal injury damages you owe⁸
• Universal Credit advances and Social Fund payments⁴

Joint debts can be included even if only one person enters the scheme. The other person named on the agreement is also protected against enforcement action while your Breathing Space runs, though they are not added to the register, and the creditor can still charge them interest or fees¹. A guarantor on one of your debts gets no protection at all: the creditor can continue collection and enforcement against them unless they are also on the scheme themselves¹.

Your home, energy supply and bailiffs during Breathing Space

Breathing Space bites hardest on the enforcement that threatens your home and essentials.

Rent and mortgage. If you rent, in most cases your landlord cannot start court action to evict you for rent arrears while you are in Breathing Space, and cannot serve notice on you or evict you for rent arrears¹. If you have a mortgage, in most cases your lender cannot start court action to repossess your home, cannot take legal steps to make you pay the arrears, and cannot add interest and charges to the arrears¹. The scheme can stop a repossession process for a while if it has not yet reached court, and delay further action by your lender³. You can get Breathing Space at any point in the eviction process¹⁷.

The limits are real, though. Breathing Space may pause eviction proceedings for rent arrears, but it cannot undo a court order that has already been granted, and it cannot stop eviction for reasons other than rent arrears³. For a standard Breathing Space, any scheduled eviction is suspended to no earlier than 14 days after the Breathing Space ends; for a mental health crisis Breathing Space, any scheduled eviction cannot take place, and this is reviewed by a judge if it is suspended beyond six months¹⁸.

Energy supply. In most cases your energy supplier cannot disconnect your household gas or electricity while you are in Breathing Space, and cannot fit a prepayment meter to take payments towards the debt¹. This protection covers household supplies; it does not mean the arrears go away, and you still have to keep paying your current usage.

Bailiffs. A creditor cannot start bailiff action against you while you are in Breathing Space, and a bailiff cannot take control of your goods¹. If a bailiff has already taken goods from your property before the Breathing Space started, they will still be able to sell them, although storage charges cannot be added during or after the Breathing Space¹. The narrow page on Breathing Space, bailiffs and eviction covers these rules in detail.

County court judgments. No new claims for CCJs can be raised against you, bailiffs cannot act on an existing CCJ, no new enforcement action can start and no hearings can take place while the Breathing Space runs. A new CCJ can still be ordered if a claim was already raised before the scheme started³. See county court judgments and court enforcement for how those processes work outside the scheme.

How to apply: only through an approved debt adviser

You cannot apply for a standard Breathing Space yourself. It can only be started by a regulated debt adviser, or by your local council if it provides debt advice to its residents¹⁴. The adviser must agree that you need time to get debt advice and are likely to enter a debt solution¹. The legislation is explicit: an application may not be made unless the debtor has first obtained advice, whether in person, over the telephone or by electronic means, and applies to the debt advice provider who provided that advice¹⁹. An individual can only access a standard breathing space after being assessed as eligible by a debt advice provider⁶.

The adviser you use must be from an approved organisation regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority³. Free advisers that run the scheme include the main debt charities; the page on free debt advice lists where to find them, and how to tell if a debt adviser is legitimate explains how to check.

The process runs on a short timetable. Once your application has been submitted, the Breathing Space will usually start the following day¹. The adviser sends your application to the Insolvency Service, which adds your details to the Breathing Space register by the end of the next working day, and your Breathing Space starts the day after that⁴. Official guidance confirms the start rule: a breathing space starts the day after the debtor's details are put onto the breathing space register¹⁸.

Only creditors who have had a debt included in your Breathing Space can access the register, and they can only view their own debt with your details¹. If a creditor contacts you anyway, National Debtline publishes a template letter you can use to tell a creditor that you are in breathing space and to ask them to stop collection of the debt²¹.

What you must keep doing while it runs

Breathing Space pauses your creditors, not your obligations. The debts still exist, and the scheme expects certain things of you:

• Keep paying your ongoing bills. Breathing Space does not let you stop paying anything that is not an included arrears debt: your rent or mortgage, council tax, gas and electricity and other living costs still have to be paid as they fall due³. For secured debts such as a mortgage, you must maintain the ongoing payments even though only the arrears are included¹.
• Stay within the borrowing limit. You must not borrow more than £500 while you are in Breathing Space¹. Debts taken out after it started are not covered by its protections⁸.
• Work with your adviser. The scheme exists so you can get advice and enter a debt solution, and your adviser will review your Breathing Space after 30 days⁴. Between days 25 and 35, the adviser reviews your application and decides whether the Breathing Space should continue⁸.
• Answer your adviser honestly. Giving incorrect information, or including a debt that is not eligible, are among the reasons a Breathing Space can be cancelled⁴.

If you are having deductions taken from your benefits or wages for an eligible debt, these will stop while you are in your Breathing Space¹⁴. The exception is Universal Credit: deductions for a debt not owed to the Department for Work and Pensions will continue even if the debt is eligible for Breathing Space, and new deductions are also possible¹. If you receive a legacy benefit such as Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance, Income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Income Support, Housing Benefit, Child Tax Credit or Working Tax Credit, deductions should stop if the debt is eligible, and new deductions will not be possible¹. The page on deductions from Universal Credit explains how those work.

Where Breathing Space does not protect you

The protections have edges, and it is worth knowing where they are before you rely on the scheme.

Enforcement that is already running. Enforcement action may still be taken if there is an attachment of earnings order in place, a direct earnings attachment, or other court-ordered enforcement action⁴. An existing attachment of earnings order is not stopped by the scheme¹.

Guarantors and joint debts. A guarantor for a debt you include receives no protection: the creditor can continue collection and enforcement against them¹. On a joint debt, no enforcement takes place during your Breathing Space, but the other person named on the debt can still be charged fees and interest³.

New and excluded debts. Debts taken out after the scheme started, and the excluded categories listed earlier, get nothing from the scheme⁸.

Your credit file. Breathing Space is not recorded on your credit file, and the credit reference agencies are not told you are in it. But any missed payments with your creditors will be recorded in the usual way, so the scheme does not shield your credit record¹.

Statute barred debts. As noted above, including a debt that is close to being statute barred resets the six-year clock³. There is also a knock-on effect on time limits generally: the time limit for taking legal action on a debt extends for eight weeks after your Breathing Space ends⁴.

The scheme's own limits. Breathing Space cannot write off debt, cannot cover all debts, cannot stop money being taken from wages or benefits in every case, cannot last longer than 60 days, and cannot let you stop paying your other bills³.

When Breathing Space ends or is cancelled

A standard Breathing Space ends 60 days after it is applied for¹⁸. It cannot be reinstated if it ends for any reason⁴, and you cannot request to cancel it yourself once your application has been submitted³.

Beyond running its course, a Breathing Space can be cancelled for several reasons⁴:

• You do not meet the eligibility criteria, for example you were already in another formal debt solution, or you had used Breathing Space in the last 12 months
• There was an error in how it was set up
• You have not met your responsibilities under the scheme
• A creditor believes you can afford to pay, or that information given was incorrect, or that an ineligible debt was included

Creditors have their own routes. Up to day 25, the people you owe can ask for the Breathing Space to be stopped³. At any point, they can ask your debt adviser to review it, and the adviser can cancel it if they agree there are sufficient grounds⁵. They can also accept payments from you, ask the adviser to cancel it, or apply to the court to cancel it⁸. A creditor cannot petition to bankrupt you while you are protected⁷, and cannot make you bankrupt or issue a statutory demand during the scheme²².

If the debtor dies during a moratorium period, the moratorium ends on the day after the day on which they died²³.

When the scheme ends, the protections lift. Creditors can apply interest, charges, fees and penalties again, start or resume court action, and contact you to reclaim the debt, though they cannot request anything that accrued during the scheme unless a court order allows it⁸. This is why the expectation throughout is that you and your adviser use the 60 days to set up the solution that follows, whether that is a payment arrangement, a debt management plan or a formal insolvency. StepChange's review of the scheme found that nearly all clients who accessed it found the protections useful, with at least 2 in 3 reporting improved wellbeing²⁴.

Scotland and Northern Ireland: what applies instead

Breathing Space applies in England and Wales only³. The Commons Library briefing on the regulations notes the same: the Regulations only apply to England and Wales⁶.

Scotland runs its own arrangements. In Scotland you may be able to apply for a debt moratorium, which gives a shorter period of protection from creditor action³. Scotland also has the Debt Arrangement Scheme (DAS), protected trust deeds and sequestration as its own debt solutions, and its enforcement works through sheriff officers rather than bailiffs, covered on the page about diligence in Scotland.

Northern Ireland does not yet have the scheme. In April 2026 the Northern Ireland Executive agreed in principle to work with HM Treasury to introduce statutory Breathing Space protections to Northern Ireland through a UK statutory instrument made under section 7 of the Financial Guidance and Claims Act 2018²⁵. The previous plan, a Debt Respite (Northern Ireland) Bill that would have legislated for both Breathing Space and a Statutory Debt Repayment Plan, is being withdrawn from the legislative programme²⁵. The extension is subject to further policy development and consultation, final UK Ministerial approval, and approval of the draft Regulations by both the Northern Ireland Assembly and Westminster²⁵. Until it is in place, people in Northern Ireland rely on the solutions described on pages such as bankruptcy in Northern Ireland and IVAs in Northern Ireland.

Getting help

Breathing Space can only be entered through a debt adviser, so the first step is free advice. The charities and not-for-profit services that run the scheme do not charge for it, and the scheme itself costs nothing¹⁵. The page on free debt advice sets out where to get it and what happens at an appointment, and how to tell if a debt adviser is legitimate explains how to check an adviser is authorised before you share your details.

If enforcement is already at your door, the pages on bailiffs, court enforcement and which bills to pay first explain your rights and priorities while you arrange advice. If your debts feel unmanageable, the overview of debt solutions sets out every formal and informal option, and the comparison pages such as DMP or IVA and DRO or bankruptcy show how the main formal options differ.