Can breathing space help with mortgage arrears?

Breathing space is a free government-backed scheme that can pause your mortgage lender's action on arrears for 60 days while you get debt advice¹. During that period your lender cannot take legal steps to make you pay the arrears or repossess your home, and in most cases you cannot be evicted for mortgage arrears³. Interest and charges on the arrears are frozen, and your creditors must stop contacting you about the debts included in the scheme⁵.

It is not a way to write off debt. You still owe the arrears, and you still need to pay as much of your ongoing mortgage as you can afford during the 60 days⁷. What breathing space buys you is time: a protected window in which to work with a debt adviser on a plan, without the pressure of enforcement action or collection calls.

You cannot apply for breathing space yourself. A debt adviser must assess your situation and submit the application, which is why the scheme is tied to getting regulated debt advice⁸. If your home is at risk, free help is available from charities including StepChange, National Debtline, Citizens Advice and Shelter⁹.

Breathing Space pauses action on mortgage arrears for 60 days

Standard breathing space gives you a 60-day period in which most types of enforcement are stopped and most creditors are barred from adding interest and charges⁵. The scheme was set up to give eligible people in problem debt who receive professional debt advice access to that 60-day period of protection⁸. During it, your mortgage lender and other creditors cannot contact you about your arrears¹.

The pause is not automatic and it is not indefinite. It runs for 60 days from the date your adviser submits the application, and it ends on a set date. After it ends, creditor action can resume unless you have agreed a debt solution in the meantime. That is the point of the scheme: the 60 days exist so you can put a plan in place, not so the problem goes away¹³.

For someone behind on a mortgage, the practical effect is that the clock stops on enforcement. Your lender cannot take legal steps to make you pay the arrears or repossess your home while you are in breathing space³. If court action has already started but has not yet reached a hearing, the scheme can stop the process for a while¹⁴.

What your mortgage lender cannot do during Breathing Space

The restrictions on your lender are specific. During breathing space, a mortgage lender cannot evict you, contact you about the arrears, take action to make you pay them, or add interest and charges to the arrears¹⁵. More broadly, creditors cannot evict you for mortgage arrears, start or continue court action to get their money, or charge interest or fees on missed payments⁷.

The courts are bound too. In a breathing space the court will not issue a money claim or process a help with fees application, process a default judgment, issue any form of enforcement application, continue with an enforcement application already issued including evictions, or proceed with a debt where a bankruptcy petition has started¹⁶.

There are limits to this. Breathing space can stop or delay your home being repossessed, but it cannot undo a court order that has already been granted, and it does not stop eviction for reasons other than rent or mortgage arrears¹⁴. If your lender has already obtained a possession order, the protection is weaker, which is why timing matters and why advice early in the process is more useful than advice late.

Protection from repossession and eviction while it lasts

In most cases your mortgage lender will not be able to start court action to repossess your home while you are in breathing space³. You cannot usually be evicted for rent or mortgage arrears while you are on the scheme⁷. If you rent, in most cases your landlord will not be able to start court action to evict you for rent arrears either³.

The scheme can also pause the eviction process if your landlord is evicting you for rent arrears¹⁷. Landlords cannot serve notice on you or evict you for rent arrears during the period¹⁸. For renters, the landlord can still contact you about anything not related to the rent arrears¹⁸.

There are exceptions worth knowing. If you have a hire purchase or lease agreement, breathing space may not protect the goods from being taken if the agreement allows repossession without a court order³. For commercial and buy-to-let mortgages, arrears can be included and lenders cannot take court action during the breathing space to recover them, but the scheme may not prevent a lender instructing receivers, whose powers can vary and sometimes include arranging the sale of a property³.

Who can get Breathing Space for mortgage arrears

You may be eligible if you are in debt or struggling with rent or mortgage arrears¹⁹. The scheme is aimed at eligible individual debtors with problem debt, and it is open to people who miss payments on a mortgage, credit cards or other loans²⁰. The regulations provide eligible individual debtors with problem debt a period of protection from their creditors²².

The gateway is debt advice. Breathing space is available to eligible people in problem debt who receive professional debt advice, and the application is made by your adviser, not by you⁸. That means the first practical step is to contact a free debt advice service and go through your circumstances with them. They will assess whether breathing space is suitable and, if it is, submit the application.

Breathing space is not the only option for mortgage arrears, and it may not be the right one in every case. Other routes include agreeing an arrangement with your lender, extending your mortgage term, or switching to a different repayment structure. The mortgage arrears guide sets out the alternatives, and the pre-action rules explain what your lender must do before going to court.

Standard and mental health breathing space: how each one covers arrears

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

Standard breathing space lasts 60 days and requires you to receive debt advice and work towards a debt solution¹⁰. Mental health crisis breathing space lasts for the length of your crisis treatment plus 30 days, so it can run considerably longer¹⁰. It provides the same protections as the standard scheme, but with no requirement to receive advice and find a debt solution²³.

Both versions cover the same qualifying debts. For standard and mental health crisis breathing spaces these include credit cards, store cards, personal loans, payday loans, overdrafts, utility bill arrears, mortgage arrears, rent arrears, council tax debts, tax debts, welfare benefit overpayments unless fraudulent, and penalty charge notices²⁴. The exclusions are the same for both: secured debts where only the arrears can be included, debts incurred after starting breathing space, fraudulent debts, magistrates court fines, child maintenance or family court money owed, crisis or budgeting loans from the social fund, student loans and personal injury damages²⁴.

If you are getting mental health crisis treatment and struggling with your debts, the mental health version can give you extra protection from your creditors²⁵. It is worth asking a debt adviser or your mental health team about it if it applies to you.

Other debts Breathing Space covers alongside your mortgage

Breathing space is not limited to your mortgage. It covers most debts, including credit and store cards, loans, overdrafts and arrears on household bills²⁶. Many consumer credit debts, energy and water debts, rent arrears, unpaid council tax, mortgage arrears, benefits overpayments and buy now pay later debt can be included where you have already missed payments¹⁴.

The full list of qualifying debts includes 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 fraudulent, and penalty charge notices²⁴. Arrears on essential bills such as rent, mortgage, gas and electricity, water, hire purchase, council tax and business rates, income tax and National Insurance can normally be included, along with non-priority debts such as credit cards, overdrafts, loans, catalogues and family or personal debts¹⁴.

Some debts cannot be included. Secured debts such as a mortgage, secured loan or hire purchase agreement cannot have the lending itself included, only the arrears, and ongoing payments must be maintained¹⁴. Student loans, court fines, child maintenance payments, fines linked to crimes, personal injury damages and benefit deductions are excluded¹⁴. Debts secured on your home are excluded, but mortgage arrears are not¹⁴.

Joint debts can be included even if only one person enters a breathing space, and protection from enforcement action also applies to the other people who owe that debt¹⁶.

What happens to your ongoing mortgage payments

Breathing space freezes enforcement and interest on the arrears, but it does not freeze your mortgage. You still need to pay your ongoing rent or mortgage during the breathing space¹⁸. Even if you cannot pay anything towards the arrears, you still need to pay your ongoing mortgage during the period¹⁸.

This distinction matters. The scheme protects you from action over the arrears, not from the consequences of missing your regular payment. If you stop paying the mortgage altogether, you are building new arrears that fall outside the protection, and your lender can act on those once the breathing space ends.

If you have a mortgage, your lender cannot charge interest on any arrears during breathing space, but they can still charge interest on the amount you borrowed⁷. So your normal mortgage interest continues to accrue on the outstanding loan balance, while the arrears themselves are frozen.

If paying the ongoing mortgage is not possible, that is a conversation to have with your debt adviser during the breathing space. Options such as a payment holiday or a different arrangement may be available, and the payment holiday guide explains how those affect your credit file.

What happens when Breathing Space ends

When the 60 days are up, the protection ends. Creditors can resume collection and enforcement, and your lender can restart court action if no arrangement has been agreed. The breathing space does not itself resolve the arrears; it creates a window in which to agree a solution.

That is why the advice element matters. The scheme exists to give you time to get free quality debt advice and put a plan in place¹⁸. If you spend the 60 days without engaging, you end up in the same position with less time. If you use them to agree an affordable arrangement with your lender, or to enter a formal debt solution, you come out of the period with a route forward.

Creditors do have some powers during the period. They can accept payments, ask your debt adviser to cancel the breathing space if they feel you are not eligible, or apply to the court to cancel it²⁴. Breathing space is a protection, not an absolute bar, and it can be ended early in some circumstances.

Where to get free help

Breathing space is a free government scheme that stops you being chased for debts²⁷. The advice you need to enter it is also free. You cannot apply directly, so the starting point is a free debt advice service.

Free, impartial help is available from StepChange, National Debtline and Citizens Advice, and from Shelter if your home is at risk⁹. If you are in Wales, advice on managing credit is available through the Welsh Government's advice service²⁸. If you are in Northern Ireland, the Debt Respite Scheme has been extended there through separate legislation²⁹.

If you are struggling with your mortgage specifically, the mortgage arrears guide covers the options in more detail, and the repossession guide for England and Wales explains the court process if matters have already progressed. For Scotland, see repossession in Scotland, and for Northern Ireland, repossession in Northern Ireland.