It seems like debtors are not the only ones who could benefit from seeking professional insolvency advice – creditors who are unfamiliar with more recent methods of personal insolvency, like Debt Relief Orders (DROs), might be wise to ask the experts too.
According to Citizens Advice, 127,000 people approached the national charity in 2014 with issues relating to DROs, and in many cases they were still being aggressively pursued by creditors for payment, despite the personal insolvency product having frozen their debts.
Some 85% of Citizens Advice advisors encountered this in 2014, and a quarter said their clients had been told to top up their energy meters to repay fuel debts that were actually frozen by DROs.
Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice, notes that some creditors show signs of better practice, including going as far as to offer insolvency advice directly to their debtors through specialist teams.
“Some creditors are doing a really good job in supporting people with DROs by setting up special teams to help with insolvency queries and communicating every step of the way,” she said.
“But there is still a long way for some firms to go and we encourage them to learn from other companies’ successes.”
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