Breathing Space is temporary protection from your creditors, for up to 60 days, while you get debt advice and make a plan, if you live in England or Wales. If you get it, enforcement action cannot be taken against you, your creditors cannot contact you about the debts included, and they cannot add interest or charges to your debt. You will still need to make your debt repayments.
Key points
✓Breathing Space is temporary protection from your creditors, for up to 60 days, while you get debt advice and make a plan, if you live in England or Wales.
✓Enforcement action cannot be taken against you, your creditors cannot contact you about debts included in your Breathing Space, and they cannot add interest or charges to your debt.
✓You cannot apply yourself: a breathing space can only be started by an FCA authorised debt adviser or a local authority providing debt advice, who checks that you are eligible and that it is appropriate.
✓You must not have a debt relief order, an individual voluntary arrangement, an interim order or be an undischarged bankrupt, and you must not have used the scheme in the last 12 months, unless it was for a mental health crisis.
✓A mental health crisis breathing space lasts as long as the mental health crisis treatment, plus 30 days, and an Approved Mental Health Professional must certify the treatment.
What is Breathing Space?
Breathing Space is temporary protection from your creditors, for up to 60 days, while you get debt advice and make a plan, if you live in England or Wales.
✓Yes: Enforcement action cannot be taken against you
✓Yes: Your creditors cannot contact you about debts included in your Breathing Space
✓Yes: Your creditors must stop applying interest, fees, penalties or charges for the breathing space debt for as long as the breathing space runs
✓Yes: A creditor cannot start legal proceedings, including bankruptcy petitions, or apply for a default judgment, for a breathing space debt
✓Yes: A creditor cannot get or seek a liability order, or enforce security held for a breathing space debt
✓Yes: An enforcement agent must not give notice about taking control of goods, visit your home or business to take control of goods, take control of goods, or sell your goods, unless it took them before the breathing space started
✓Yes: A creditor cannot take steps to disconnect your gas or electricity supply, unless you had illegally taken the supply
✓Yes: A creditor cannot serve a notice to take possession of your property for rent arrears, or take possession for rent arrears if a notice has already been served
What Breathing Space does not do:
✗No: Act as a payment holiday: you are still legally required to pay your debts and liabilities
✗No: Write off or reduce your debts: they are still owing and must still be dealt with
✗No: Stop existing Universal Credit deductions
✗No: Stop a creditor contacting you for reasons not related to a breathing space debt, including ongoing liabilities or non-eligible debts
Our bailiffs guide covers what enforcement agents can do. A client must live or usually reside in England or Wales for a breathing space to be started. Scotland has its own moratorium, which lasts for 6 months and stops creditors taking any action to recover what you owe, including arresting your bank account, freezing your wages or applying to make you bankrupt, but it does not write off debt or stop interest or charges being added.
Who can apply?
Any client who is eligible and is having trouble paying their debts can apply to a debt adviser for a standard breathing space, and a representative, for example someone with power of attorney, can also apply on their behalf.
✓Yes: Be an individual who owes a qualifying debt to a creditor and lives or usually resides in England or Wales
✓Yes: Qualifying debts include credit cards, store cards, personal loans, pay day loans, overdrafts and arrears on utility bills, and government debts like tax and benefit debts are all likely to qualify unless they are excluded
✓Yes: Not have a debt relief order, an individual voluntary arrangement, an interim order, or be an undischarged bankrupt at the time you apply
✓Yes: Not already have a breathing space, and not have had a standard breathing space in the last 12 months at the time you apply
✓Yes: Go through a debt adviser who is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to offer debt counselling, or a local authority providing debt advice to residents
To apply for Breathing Space you need to talk to a debt adviser, who will submit an application on your behalf if it is the right thing to do. Clients can only access a breathing space through a debt adviser, after the adviser has checked that they are eligible and that a breathing space is appropriate for them. GOV.UK says it is free to apply for Breathing Space but some debt advisers may charge you a fee, while the guidance for debt advisers says a debt adviser cannot charge a client to enter a breathing space.
Mental Health Crisis Moratorium
The guidance for debt advisers describes 2 types of breathing space, a standard breathing space and a mental health crisis breathing space, under the Debt Respite Scheme (Breathing Space Moratorium and Mental Health Crisis Moratorium) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020.
✓Yes: It is only available to a client who is receiving mental health crisis treatment
✓Yes: It lasts as long as the client's mental health crisis treatment, plus 30 days, no matter how long the treatment lasts
✓Yes: You are not required to engage with debt advice, and there is no limit to the number of times a client can enter one
✓Yes: The debtor, the debtor's carer, an Approved Mental Health Professional, a care co-ordinator, a mental health nurse, a social worker, an independent mental health or mental capacity advocate, or a representative can ask a debt adviser for it on the debtor's behalf
✓Yes: The adviser must contact the client's nominated point of contact every 20 to 30 days to confirm that the client is still receiving mental health crisis treatment
Who cannot provide the evidence:
✗No: Doctors, including GPs: only Approved Mental Health Professionals can provide evidence that a client is receiving mental health crisis treatment
Mental health crisis treatment means treatment for a mental health condition which justifies detention in a hospital setting or removal to a place of safety, or any other crisis, emergency or acute treatment of a mental health condition considered by an Approved Mental Health Professional to be of equivalent severity, which does not necessarily involve being assessed, or detained or removed without your consent, under the Mental Health Act 1983. Following the 2023 High Court judgments, government guidance says that an Approved Mental Health Professional should be satisfied that the debtor is in treatment for a mental health disorder of comparable severity to disorders requiring a patient's detention in a hospital setting.
How to apply
1
Contact a debt advice provider
You can find a free debt adviser on the MoneyHelper website, and if you are receiving mental health treatment and cannot speak to a debt adviser, someone else can do so on your behalf. You will need to give the adviser your full name, date of birth and usual residential address, your trading names and any business address if you are a sole trader and want to include qualifying business debts, and details of all the debts you owe and contact details for your creditors to the best of your knowledge.
2
Debt advice assessment
Before starting a standard breathing space the adviser must consider whether you have funds or income available to pay debts as they fall due, would benefit from entering a debt solution either now or in the immediate future, and may be eligible to enter a debt solution during, or as soon as possible after, the breathing space.
3
Breathing Space starts
A breathing space starts the day after the date your details are put onto the breathing space register. A standard breathing space can be started with only one qualifying debt, but you are not protected from creditor enforcement action until each debt owed to that and any other creditor is added and the creditors have received notification about each one.
4
During the breathing space
You must tell the adviser if there is any change in your circumstances, make any payment due for your ongoing liabilities, not get any additional credit, including an overdraft facility, that exceeds £500, and engage with the adviser in a way the adviser considers appropriate. The adviser must carry out a midway review between days 25 and 35, and may cancel a standard breathing space if you go into a debt solution, do not meet your obligations, or the adviser decides to after the midway review or a creditor's review; once it starts you cannot ask for it to be cancelled.
5
After 60 days
Usually a standard breathing space will automatically end 60 days after it starts. The debts in it are still owing, and once creditors have been notified of the end they can start applying interest, fees, penalties and charges from the date of the end, take action to enforce their debt, including contacting you or collecting debts from your benefits, and resume or commence legal proceedings, but they cannot take enforcement action if you have already entered a debt solution such as a debt relief order or bankruptcy.
Ongoing liabilities in a standard breathing space are payments you have to pay during it for a mortgage secured against your primary residence, a lease or rental agreement for your primary residence, an insurance agreement, taxes, duties and national insurance contributions, local taxes rates for the local authority, and water, sewerage, electricity, gas, heating oil or solid fuel bills; if you do not keep paying them the adviser can decide to cancel your standard breathing space. A breathing space cannot repair credit file issues or stop any impact from decisions you make during or after it, but there should be no automatic effect on the credit file triggered by starting the breathing space.
Debts not covered by Breathing Space
All personal debts and liabilities qualify for breathing space protections, except for:
✗No: Secured debts such as mortgages, hire purchase or conditional sale agreements, although arrears that exist at the date of the application can be included
✗No: Debts incurred because of fraud
✗No: Liabilities to pay fines imposed by a court for an offence
✗No: Obligations from a confiscation order
✗No: Child maintenance or obligations under an order made in family court proceedings
✗No: A crisis or budgeting loan from the social fund
✗No: Student loans
✗No: Damages you need to pay for the death or personal injury caused to someone else
✗No: Advance payments of Universal Credit
✗No: Council tax liabilities that have not yet fallen due
✗No: Debts incurred during a breathing space
If a breathing space is not enough, our bankruptcy guide and dealing with debt guide cover the longer-term options.Our dealing with debt guide covers the alternatives. Creditors can ask the adviser to review a breathing space within 20 days from its start if they think it unfairly prejudices their interests or there has been some material irregularity in the application, and the creditor can then apply to the court within 50 days of the start of the breathing space. A creditor can also apply to a court for permission to take specific enforcement action, and the court will only grant permission where it thinks it is reasonable, it will not be detrimental to you, and it does not significantly undermine the protections of the breathing space.
Breathing Space is temporary protection from your creditors, for up to 60 days, while you get debt advice and make a plan, if you live in England or Wales. If you get it, enforcement action cannot be taken against you, your creditors cannot contact you about the debts included, and they cannot add interest or charges to your debt. You will still need to make your debt repayments.
Which debts are covered by Breathing Space?
Most of a client's debts are likely to be qualifying debts, including credit cards, store cards, personal loans, pay day loans, overdrafts and arrears on utility bills, and government debts like tax and benefit debts are all likely to qualify unless they are on the list of excluded debts. The excluded debts include secured debts such as mortgages (although arrears existing at the date of the application can be included), debts incurred because of fraud, court fines, confiscation orders, child maintenance, crisis or budgeting loans from the social fund, student loans, damages for death or personal injury, advance payments of Universal Credit, and council tax liabilities that have not yet fallen due.
How do I apply for Breathing Space?
To apply for Breathing Space you need to talk to a debt adviser, who will submit an application on your behalf if it is the right thing to do, and you can find a free debt adviser on the MoneyHelper website. A breathing space can only be started by debt advice providers authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to offer debt counselling, or a local authority where it provides debt advice to residents. GOV.UK says it is free to apply for Breathing Space but some debt advisers may charge you a fee, while the guidance for debt advisers says a debt adviser cannot charge a client to enter a breathing space.
What is the Mental Health Crisis Moratorium?
A mental health crisis breathing space is only available to a client who is receiving mental health crisis treatment, and it lasts as long as the client's mental health crisis treatment, plus 30 days, no matter how long the treatment lasts. You are not required to engage with debt advice, and there is no limit to the number of times a client can enter one. Approved Mental Health Professionals are the only professional group who can provide evidence that a client is receiving mental health crisis treatment, and other doctors, including GPs, cannot provide this evidence.
Can Breathing Space be cancelled?
The adviser may cancel a standard breathing space earlier than 60 days if the client goes into a debt solution before the 60 days is over, does not meet their obligations, or the adviser decides to after the midway review or after a creditor asks for a review, and once a standard breathing space starts the client cannot ask for it to be cancelled. If the client does not keep paying their ongoing liabilities the adviser can decide to cancel their standard breathing space.