September 2012

The Rangers Effect (or is it Sevco 5088…?)

The Rangers Effect (or is it Sevco 5088…?)

As the Scottish Government considers creating a new business Debt Arrangement Scheme, Alan McIntosh explains how the current scheme works and how it can be used to help flailing businesses and consumers.

If you are like me, you will have followed the demise of Rangers football club with some interest and probably participated in many discussions about Company Voluntary Arrangements (CVAs), Administration and Corporate liquidations that seemed to spring up everywhere, including online, over the water cooler and at dinner.

Remarkably much of it has been well informed and has led me to wonder whether there could be a Ranger’s effect: a silver lining in those dark clouds where more businesses, now their awareness has been heightened, begin seeking advice and assistance when they begin to experience financial difficulties.

I have seen a number of small businesses over the last year that fit this description, whether it’s been the result of rising fixed costs, adverse weather, falling sales or HMRC pursuing a more aggressive recovery strategy.

Although CVAs, Administrations and Corporate liquidations are inappropriate for these types of business models the Scottish Debt Arrangement Scheme can be used to assist them. A formal debt management tool that was introduced in 2004 by the Scottish Government, the Scheme was created to help debtors manage their personal liabilities and was provided for initially by the Debt Arrangement and Attachment (Scotland) Act 2002 and the Debt Arrangement Scheme (Scotland) Regulations 2004.

It was updated in 2007 to include provisions which allowed the freezing of interest and charges and again in 2011 to widen access to the scheme. The Scottish Government is now seeing over 4,000 applications being made each year to the Accountant in Bankruptcy, in her role as Debt Arrangement Scheme Administrator.

If debtors wish to apply to the Scheme they must do so through an approved money adviser or insolvency practitioner, who gives holistic advice to the debtor on their finances and options and then makes an application on their behalf. Creditors of the debtor get 21 days to agree or object to a plan and if they fail to do so are deemed to have consented. If no creditor objects or responds the plan is automatically approved. Where someone does object, it is sent to the Accountant in Bankruptcy who applies a fair and reasonable test to see if the plan should be approved.

Where plans are approved, it is not possible to sequestrate the client, execute a earning or bank arrestment or carry out any other form of diligence. Where an earnings arrestment has been executed, it is formally recalled.

Although an application to the Debt Arrangement Scheme will prevent a petition for bankruptcy being raised in the sheriff court by a creditor, where it has been raised prior to an application being made or intimated, the debtor can seek a continuation from the sheriff under s12 (3C) of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 1985 to allow the DAS application to be decided.

The effect of approval is the debtor gets full protection and is allowed to repay their debts each month through an appointed payment distributor to the Scheme.

What makes the scheme suitable for sole traders and individual partners is not only does it protect individual debtors, but Regulation 25 (3) of the 2011 Regulations allows the DAS Administrator when considering whether a programme should be approved to consider anything she considers relevant. The fact certain business assets may have to be kept, therefore, to produce an income is relevant and means the owners of such businesses can often enter the scheme, obtain protection and continue trading to help pay off their debts.

Discretionary conditions are also possible in making an application to the Scheme and it can be proposed that the realisations of assets will be delayed until a later date or if at all or where it is known assets will become available, that at that point these will be used to reduce the outstanding balances.

The many businesses that are using this scheme at present may not be on the scale of Rangers Football Club, but it is providing many with vital breathing space to reorganise their affairs and seek advice for the first time. It is a credit to the scheme that this has been possible and is providing many small Scottish businesses with a life line during the current economic turmoil.

It also provides fantastic returns for creditors with the longest scheme running generally no more than 10 years, meaning in reality creditors receive a 10 pence dividend for each year a plan operates. These results compare favourably with other remedies such as protected trust deeds and sequestrations.

It may be some time before the Debt Arrangement Scheme attracts the same attention that corporate insolvency has, barring a high profile application being made by someone, but its popularity is only likely to continue to grow.

Payday Loans: The Scottish Parliament Must Act

Payday Loans: The Scottish Parliament Must Act

First published in Bella Caledonia

Pay day lending is a dangerous business. There are no doubts about it. It preys on the needs of the vulnerable that have been created by failure: the failure of our banking system; the failure of our consumer right laws; the failure of our benefit system; and most importantly our failure to protect the most vulnerable.

It less seduces it’s victims with the honeyed fragrance of easy money, than pedals quick fixes to them with all the subtlety and tact of drug dealers. It targets its victims by identifying their weaknesses. Can’t pay the rent: that’s okay we can help; can’t feed the children: here you go; electricity about to be cut: don’t worry.

The experience of many with pay day loans is one of helplessness and desperation. Helplessness as each month the loan rolls over and you know you are sinking deeper and deeper into a hole. Desperation as you realise the possibility of being able to replace the children’s shoes, clothes and uniforms is growing increasingly remote. The desperation that comes from the realisation that one day it may be your children who will be going to school with inappropriate shoes; jackets; lunches.

It causes depression; fear of answering the phone; avoidance of opening the door. Mail lies unopened. Strangers intrude on your doorstep and violate you and your family’s privacy seeking payment.

And Fergus Ewing, the Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Tourism calls this a “legal, fair and transparent”business.

I don’t blame the Scottish Government for the pay day loan industry. How could I? They don’t have legislative authority over consumer credit laws, they can’t cap the interest rates and they don’t have any control over the key economic levers they need to boost employment and growth in our economy.

I can be angry with them, however, for not going to war with them. I can be angry that they won’t do more to discourage the use of these loans, to promote alternatives such as credit unions and I can be angry that they won’t use the powers they have to send a message that they aren’t welcome here.

Fergus Ewing takes the view this would be “inappropriate”; but for reasons of public health it was not inappropriate to take action to discourage smoking; it was not inappropriate to use our existing powers to restrict the use of alcohol through minimum pricing and it wasn’t inappropriate for the Scottish Government to challenge the authority of the Supreme Court.

Pay day loans are a scourge on our society and have grown up and thrived in the cesspit of financial failure that we have been exposed to in the last few years.

But powers do exist which would allow the Scottish Government to act now.

Debt law is an area that has been devolved to the Scottish Parliament. It is possible for certain debts to be treated differently and for interest rates to be frozen or varied once someone is struggling to pay them. Already such a Scheme exists in the form of the Debt Arrangement Scheme, but although this allows pay day loans to be included and for all interest, fees and charges to be frozen, it takes too long to use and allows payday loan companies to benefit from dragging their feet.

It’s within the legislative authority of the Scottish Government to create a new scheme or amend the existing one to create a more streamlined approach with specific rules for pay day loans. The powers allowing for such a scheme exist in the Debt Arrangement and Attachment (Scotland) Act 2004 s7 and s7a.

This, however, requires political commitment: a commitment borne out of a belief that pay day loans are nothing but fair or transparent and the only thing that would be inappropriate is to do nothing. A commitment that is borne out of an understanding of how closely related these firms and their practices are to the issue of poverty; and a commitment that is driven by a belief that the powers of the Scottish Parliament exist if for no other reason, but to make the lives of Scots better and to protect the most vulnerable.

Six Ways For The Scottish Parliament To Now Tackle Poverty

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As the Scottish Government take their turn to do the okey cokey and shuffle the cabinet, I suggest some ideas the Cabinet Secretaries and Ministers may wish to consider that could help reduce poverty and the worse effects of it in Scotland.

Margaret Burgess (Mininster for Housing)

We have already seen significant advances in housing law over the last few years, with Part One of the Home Owner and Debtor Protection (Scotland) Act 2010, the Housing (Scotland) Act 2010 and the Private Rented Housing (Scotland) Act 2011.

Here, however, is an interesting suggestion by Jon Kiddie, the Principal Solicitor of Renfrewshire Law Centre to end evictions during the coldest months of the year. Similar rules already exist in many EU countries. Why not have similar protections in Scotland, one of the coldest and wettest countries in Western Europe?

Fergus Ewing (Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Tourism)

Or what if we follow the example of Norway and use our legislative authority over debt laws to right down mortgages when people are facing repossession and have negative equity?

Often people get into arrears as they can no longer maintain their mortgage payments. This result in their homes being repossessed and sold at a loss as they have negative equity. If we acknowledge the lenders are going to suffer a loss anyway, why not allow for the debt to be reduced and allow the borrower to repay the loan at the reduced rate?

We will have a new Bankruptcy bill  introduced in this parliament. As I have already blogged we should be bold and recognise the role such laws can have in not only assisting economic recovery, but freeing people from the vicious cycle that is caused by debt, whilst providing a social safety net for the poorest.  We could draw on the laws of Canada and the United States and increase protection for homes in bankruptcy by protecting certain levels of equity. This would allow more to access the remedy where debts are no longer manageable, without placing homes at risk.

We could also introduce a new Debt Payment Programme for pay day loans as has been suggested by Mike Dailly, Principal Solicitor of Govan Law Centre which he has blogged about here and I have also covered.

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John Swinney (Cabinet Secretary for Finance)

We all know before the last election The Scottish Government had its efforts to reform local taxation (the council tax) blocked by Labour.

What’s now stopping us?

Council tax is recognised as an unprogressive form of taxation and even those on income support have to pay water and sewage charges.

Under the last Labour Government there was no guarantee also that if Scotland did replace local taxation with a Local Service Tax that the funds currently given in Council Tax Benefit would continue. The Coalition has now, however, devolved this benefit to the regions, including Scotland.

However after they made cuts, Scotland is now funding a benefit shortfall of £40 million per year on top of the current Council Tax freeze.

Why not reintroduce a bill to reform this tax and make local taxation fairer?

Mike Russell (Cabinet Secretary for Education and Life Long Learning)

More often than not, poverty is  the result of low income, illness and unemployment as well as an array of other issues. However, greater financial education can only help Scots.

Financial education should be taught in all primary and secondary schools. We must equip our children with the skills they need in a world where many by the age of 20  will already be sinking  into a sea of debt.

Taming the Rest

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Mike Dailly in his blog for The Firm has called for a new Debt Arrangement Scheme to deal with payday lenders.  I consider whether such a scheme is feasible and if so how it should differ from the current scheme

The Scottish Government’s Debt Arrangement Scheme (DAS) currently allows pay day loans to be included into Debt Payment Programmes. That’s not a problem.

What is a problem is the fact the number of DAS’s where these types of debts are being included is now sharply on the increase, particularly amongst those under 30.

This highlights the problem that is payday loans: they are rapidly on the increase and can quickly turn temporary financial difficulties into longterm serious financial hardship. They also create a problem in that their laissez faire policy of high risk lending often damages not only the interests of the borrower, but their family who may be unaware of the borrowing and other lenders.

The debts that are rolled over often quickly increase in size and with continuing payment authorities being used to deduct funds directly from bank accounts often force clients to default on other debts.

But if the DAS can already be used are we seeking a problem for the solution?

Well maybe, but payday loans being included into Debt Payment Programmes bring their own problems. One of these is it can take between 2-3 months to get a normal DPP programme set up and approved and in that time payday loans can quickly increase due to the fact interest, charges, fees and penalties are not frozen until the DAS is approved. This can significantly lengthen the time of the programme. Also good practice states all unsecured debts should be included into a programme, even when if it wasn’t for the payday loan, the contractual payments to those other debts could be maintained.

So is there a way it may be possible to cut out the cancer without amputating the leg?

We could have a fast track scheme which could have a capital limit on the amount of debt that could be included, such as £3,000. There could  be a maximum length of time such schemes could run for such as 2 years. It would only be possible for short term pay day loans to be included into such programmes and it could be possible to continue to exclude other debts where the client could maintain the contractual payments.

In such cases, as Mike points out, interest could be set at the judicial rate of interest of 8% to reflect the fact other creditors and debts are not being included in the programme and presumably still getting interest paid.  Also programmes could automatically be approved in principle providing they meet the criteria for entry with lenders then having 3 weeks to submit objections. If the programmes is subsequently revoked as the lenders objection is upheld and it is found to be unfair or unreasonable, the lender would be able to reapply the interest, charges, fees and penalties they could have but for the scheme being approved.

In doing this we would be isolating a problem that often leads to more severe solutions becoming inevitable such as bankruptcy. It woul encourage early and limited intervention, in very much the same way a doctor would try and isolate and cut out a malign tumour before it spreads.

Such a Scheme would be a powerful deterrent to payday lenders in Scotland. It would also act as a powerful bulwark against their practice of rolling over accounts and contain the rot that sometimes begins with them but quickly spreads like gangrene to infect other more responsible lenders.

UPDATE:  Govan Law Centre have now published a discussion paper on the proposals. See here.