WE HAVE NEVER REFERRED SO MANY PEOPLE FOR MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS ASSESSMENT AS WE HAVE IN THE LAST 10 WEEKS.
In our last article regarding the Debt Respite Scheme, we alluded to the high proportion of personal guarantee (PGs) clients demanded upon who have been referred to the NHS for Mental Health Crisis reasons in the last 10 weeks.
This has continued unabated.
On the easing of the strictest lockdown rules business owners and those guarantors, who had demands made on them prior to and during the last 18 months, would have the capacity to get back on their feet and deal with their business and / or PG issues.
It is a very sad fact that at the same time many PG creditors and their solicitors took the same opportunity to escalate their action with harder collection tactics with many almost immediately issuing bankruptcy or court proceedings against the guarantors.
As these persons were getting back on their feet they were then faced with escalated action that knocked them down before they could get up.
Most of the guarantors we referred cited the escalated collection processes as the last straw after what already was a difficult, anxious and stressful time for them.
Our experience of dealing with PG issues came out of the 2008 crash. We knew then if creditors granted more forbearance they would get a better result in the end. We found that those that were the most aggressive were the ones that achieved the lowest returns from their personal guarantee collection policies.
A study by Mental Health UK with IWOCA (a small business lender relying on personal guarantees as their main form of security) sets out that 4 out of 5 business owners are experiencing mental health issues: Published HERE
For those of you who can, feel free to raise the profile of this serious issue through the media or politically.
