IVA Advice Forum Investigates Debt Help Scotland Plans

Debt help Scotland solutions appear subject to reform according to media comment reviewed by the IVA Advice Forum team this week. Facing severe cutbacks in their budget, the Accountant in Bankruptcy (responsible for insolvency processes in Scotland) are considering rebalancing the debtor and creditor relationship in terms of debt solutions outcomes. IVA Advice Forum proposes that these changes may also be connected to insolvency-based formal debt help Scotland solutions being used proportionately more in Scotland than is the case in England and Wales.

Rosemary Winter-Scott, who is in charge at the AIB, is reported in The Herald as saying that a service which delivers new products ensuring better returns for creditors could charge more for its services, cover its costs and become more efficient. It therefore appears to the IVA Advice Forum advisers that the AIB’s funding difficulties are central to potential reform of debt help Scotland options and solutions.

Predicting how such debt help Scotland options may differ in the future is impossible. However better cost recovery, perhaps by increasing the application cost for bankruptcy, seems like an easy target. Applying for Scottish bankruptcy costs £100 whereas elsewhere in the UK the cost is an incredible £700. We know from comments in our IVA advice forum and elsewhere that raising £700 is incredibly difficult so an increased fee may reduce access to appropriate debt help Scotland outcomes.

The comparison of options by the IVA Advice Forum advisers is intriguing. The alternative to an IVA under the debt help Scotland system is known as a Scottish trust deed. IVA Advice Forum team-members must advise clients that an Individual Voluntary Arrangement will generally last for 60 or 72 months; by contrast a Scottish trust deed lasts 36 months. Debt management plans provide no legal protection or certainty over future interest costs. The debt help Scotland alternative of a debt arrangement scheme solves both of these problems.

In the view of the IVA Advice Forum team the current system in Scotland is more fit for purpose than the equivalent system south of the border. The range of options under the debt help Scotland umbrella tend to be less off-putting in terms of duration, more accessible in terms of cost, and more purposeful in terms of debtor protection.

IVA Advice Forum therefore suggests that any Scottish readers who are already worried about their personal debt seek assistance and advice as soon as possible. It would appear that reform of the debt help Scotland options is unlikely to work in their favour. Our IVA Advice Forum is primarily aimed at visitors from England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, but the advisers are also knowledgeable about the debt help Scotland options and willing to assist any of our Scottish guests that might have a question they’d like to ask.

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