1st Class Bailiffs Articles

At the recent Managing Consumer Debt conference, an Office of Fair Trading (OFT) representative, David Philpott, announced that the debt collection guidelines are to be revised later on this year. This news comes in addition to the UK government’s customs and tax department, the HM Revenue and Customs, declaring that it will utilise the services of private bailiffs and debt collection agencies in order to improve rates of collecting any unpaid tax which is still outstanding.

The updated OFT documentation will take into account debt purchase guidelines, plus debt collection and pre-delinquency management best practice.

Mr Philpott stressed that this guidance will not create any unnecessary burdens on the debt collection sector when he explained:

“We will take effective action against businesses that harm or may harm consumers but we also want to establish close links with businesses and consumer representatives to ensure constructive dialogue.”

The outsourcing of the tax collection is initially on a six month trial with letters being sent out to individuals and businesses who are overdue on their tax warning them that they will be referred to a debt collection agency unless they get in contact with the HMRC immediately.

A spokesperson for the HMRC has confirmed:

“We retain a flexible approach to ensure we get the best result for the taxpayer. Using private sector capacity has the potential to complement this approach and that is what we are now exploring.”