Debt charities are demanding an independent regulator be set up to protect people from harmful behaviour by bailiffs, causing stress and exasperating existing money problems.
According to research commissioned for the campaign, more than eight in 10 people in England and Wales think bailiffs should be subject to independent regulation – the equivalent of 39 million people.
Nearly nine in 10 (86 per cent) also want an independent system for complaints about bailiffs.
The fresh calls are part of the Taking Control campaign, launched in 2017 by a group of 11 organisations including Citizens Advice, the Money & Mental Health Policy Institute and The Children’s Society.
Rule breaking
Citizens Advice, who reported a 24 per cent rise in bailiff problems since 2014, said more than one in three people visited by bailiffs in in the past two years saw a bailiff break the rules.
Phil Andrew, chief executive of debt charity StepChange, said only 15 per cent of their clients who felt they had been treated badly by bailiffs made a complaint, and that bailiff firms only uphold around one in 10 complaints.