QSA backs campaign to stop threatening debt letters
Quaker Social Action backs the ‘Stop the #DebtThreats’ campaign by the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute
Quaker Social Action (QSA) has backed a campaign to stop threatening debt collection letters that was debated in the UK parliament Commons Treasury committee last month.
The campaign to ‘Stop the #DebtThreats’ by the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute (MMHPI) was brought to parliament on 21 May when Liberal Democrat MP Norman Lamb, who is leading the calls for reform on behalf of MMHPI, told John Glen, economic secretary to the Treasury, that the current laws were ‘outdated and frankly ridiculous’. The MP cited the example of twenty-year-old Jerome Rogers who took his own life after receiving threats from bailiffs due to spiralling debts from parking fines. His story was turned into a drama Killed By My Debt by the BBC which won a BAFTA for Single Drama.
Judith Moran, QSA director, was among over 6,000 signatories of a petition by the charity to change the Consumer Credit Act 1974 so that harassing letters sent to recover debts do not have a detrimental mental health impact on people.
The petition follows a MMHPI report last year that showed that over 100,000 people in England each year attempt suicide while struggling with problem debt.
While recognising that there is usually a wide range of issues which contribute to suicidality, MMHPI found that ‘people in problem debt are three times more likely to have considered suicide than people who are not in problem debt’, and that ‘long-term factors such as persistent poverty and financial insecurity can [put] people at risk of becoming suicidal, as can sudden triggers like the intimidating and threatening letters people receive from lenders.’
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