Last year in the UK, debt collection agencies and bailiffs chased 20 million cases of debt default.

Many of these firms are using aggressive, yet legal, collection methods, and now there are calls for a clamp-down on collectors.

Yet there are fears that collection agencies will be given even more power when the details of a new Tribunals, Courts and Enforcements Act are unveiled by the government in May. Bailiffs may be given powers to break into homes and use force to remove goods.

The Ministry of Justice has claimed that such powers would only be granted once a regulatory framework for bailiffs has been put in place, and would only be used in ’strictly controlled circumstances’.  The Citizens’ Advice Bureau is due to meet the Ministry of Justice shortly to discuss the proposals.

Debtors had a total of 796,528 county court judgements (CCJs) handed down against them in 2007, a rise of 48% since 2004, while the debt collection agency Interim Justicia made group profits of around £37 million. The company expects profits to rise as more people struggle with debts: “We are looking forward to controlled sustainable growth… there’s a lot of potential in this market.”

This entry was posted on Monday, February 18th, 2008 at 2:02 pm and is filed under General Debt News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.