Beware the Danger of the Return of Warrant Sales

Beware the Danger of the Return of Warrant Sales

THERE have been calls of late for the Scottish Government to reintroduce warrant sale-style procedures; these seem now to have found a sympathetic ear.

The Accountant in Bankruptcy (AIB), a Scottish Government agency that advises ministers on matters relating to debt law, has said it is prepared to consider how the replacement procedure that was introduced, known as Exceptional Attachment Orders, can be simplified and streamlined to allow more easy use.

The process of poindings and warrant sales, which allowed sheriff officers to enter people’s homes and remove their household possessions for sale, was abolished by the Scottish Parliament in 2002, after becoming synonymous with the poll tax campaign. Tommy Sheridan, who would later be elected to the Scottish Parliament and introduced a private member’s bill which led to the abolition of the procedure, famously went to prison after disrupting the first attempt to hold one for the poll tax.

The AIB has also said it will consider whether the current procedure that was introduced, and requires a judge to authorise an order, could be removed. Sheriff officers could then threaten use of the procedure more easily against those who cannot pay their debts.

However, if the AIB position is adopted, this could well herald the return in Scotland to a Dickensian-style system of debt recovery laws which allows people to be threatened with humiliation and home intrusion, unless they can find the money to repay their debts, even if that means driving them into the hands of illegal and predatory money lenders. It was this legal abuse that led to poindings and warrant sales being abolished in the first place. In 1999, for example, the year Mr Sheridan’s bill was introduced, there were 16,585 poindings (although thousands more were threatened), but only 110 warrant sales executed. The reason being, warrant sales themselves were never an effective method of debt recovery, whereas the threat of humiliation and home intrusion was. Even people who genuinely couldn’t afford to repay their debts would be panicked into a response where they would do anything to raise the money.

Sheriff officers know this and it is why some are now claiming the new procedure is no longer effective and needs to be made easier for them to use as a threat (there has been no exceptional attachment orders executed in Scotland since 2012).

Responding to a consultation carried out by the AIB, sheriff officers Scott & Co stated, that in their experience the

“proceeds of auction in most cases are very low due to the poor value of second-hand goods and tendency towards hi-spec electrical items being subject to finance agreements.”

The question then needs to be asked, why does the AIB believe it would now be appropriate to increase the use of such procedures, even when sheriff officers acknowledge they are likely to fail? The only logical reason is the hope that by issuing such threats to the poorest in society, more people will then seek advice for their debt problems.

However, although some may well do so, many will struggle to find services or solutions that can assist them, with funding to local authority money advices services having been cut by 44 per cent in the last three years. More likely is many will become prisoners in their own home, fearful of every knock at the door, whilst suffering the stress and anxiety of believing their home will be invaded and their possessions seized with those of their family.

First published in The Herald on the 16th April 2018.

Scottish Debt Policy is Broken

Scottish Debt Policy is Broken

Originally published in the Herald, as an Agenda piece, I make the argument that Scottish debt policy is broken, was explored.

Despite personal debt levels in the UK now having returned to pre-credit crunch levels, new figures released by the Improvement Service, reveal that free, local authority-funded debt advice services have now seen their funding cut by more than 44 per cent in the last three years. The latest figures paint a picture of services that are not only lacking capacity to deal with current demand, but should Scotland face another personal debt crisis, will not cope with future demand.

The tragedy of this is the modernisation and humanising of Scotland’s personal debt laws was one of the earliest and most notable achievements of the Scottish Parliament, from the abolition of poinding and warrant sales to the introduction of a new debt management scheme, known as the Debt Arrangement Scheme. Even Scotland’s bankruptcy laws were made more consumer friendly, making it easier for those with no other options to be permitted a fresh start, whilst free debt advice services were heavily invested in between 2003 and 2007.

By 2011, the progress that had been made meant it could reasonably have been stated Scotland had some of the most forward-thinking and progressive debt laws in Europe with well-funded advice agencies that could deal with the modern-day problems of over-indebtedness.

The benefits of this were all too evident in the aftermath of the credit crunch, when hundreds of thousands of Scots accessed both formal and informal debt solutions, and substantial levels of unmanageable consumer debt were addressed.

Then in 2012-13, the Scottish Accountancy in Bankruptcy (AIB), the agency which leads on debt policy for the Scottish Government, removed the wheels from these progressive policies that were driving such change. It concluded the law had become too debtor friendly and less than five years after the credit crunch, decided the law had to be re-tilted back in favour of banks and other financial institutions.

The effect was that within a year of the new rules being implemented in 2015, the numbers applying for bankruptcy fell by 44 per cent, whilst the numbers applying for the Debt Arrangement Scheme fell by 49 per cent.

It is now reasonable in my opinion to state the system is broken, incapacitated by funding cuts, but also by laws that have become the victim of “agency capture” by the AIB and are now developed to satisfy institutional needs of slotting everyone into formal solutions that can generate fees, rather than developing a system that benefits the whole of the community.

An example of this was evident last week, when the AIB declared the Debt Arrangement Scheme was a huge success, as it had recovered £200 million for creditors, whilst overlooking the fact more debt programmes had failed than had been successful.

Also, the Improvement Service produced another report that showed of the 49,000 people in 2016-17 who had sought advice from free, council-funded debt advice services, fewer than 21 per cent had their problems addressed through a formal solution, but more than 50 per cent had relied on their free sector advice agencies to negotiate solutions on their behalf.

It is now these free advice services that are facing cuts, with North Ayrshire Citizen Advice Service and Renfrewshire Law Centre only the latest to go in another round of cuts, closing their doors last week. More inevitably will follow.

Our debt laws may be world-recognised, but unless there are adequate resources and political will, they will not work.
The problem is they are no longer working and when Scotland faces another personal debt crisis, this will become all too obvious, but by then, it will be too late.

First published in The Herald, 4th April 2018

Renfrewshire Law Centre to Close

An announcement on the website of Renfrewshire Law Centre has announced the service will close its doors on the 30th March 2018.

Only the latest in a number of advice centres that are closing, with the implementation of the Scottish Government’s budget by local councils, Renfrewshire Law Centre, previously known as Paisley Law Centre, was established in 1997.

It is understood Renfrewshire Council put out their advice services contract for tender and split it into two parts, with the legal advice and representation part, being cut from £110k to £95k. The advice part, currently provided by Renfrewshire Citizen Advice Bureaux, was only increased by £4k.

Renfrewshire Law Centre primarily assisted residents of the Renfrewshire area with rent and mortgage arrears an acted for clients in eviction and repossession cases.

It is not clear who, if anyone, in Renfrewshire, will now provide these vital front-line services.

A statement on the Centre’s website read:

“Where an ongoing client matter is not near conclusion, the client may seek advice on options for referring the matter to another practitioner.”

“Where an ongoing client matter can be concluded before the end of March, we will endeavour to conclude it.”

“Where an ongoing client matter is near conclusion, but requires some ancillary work after the end of March, we will endeavour to arrange for its conclusion at no additional fee cost to the client.”

The full statement can be read here.