It has taken years to regulate bailiffs. Stopping intimidation is as important as recovering debt

Policy advocacy can be a long and arduous process. Whether it is rallying an entire sector to engage with policymakers, lobbying individual members of parliament directly, or raising the issue in the media to increase its salience, it’s safe to say the change you are seeking can, with the best will in the world, take years. For knottier issues like bailiff regulation, try even longer.

At StepChange, 1 in 10 of our clients report facing bailiff enforcement action, so for well over a decade we have made it our mission to move the needle on the push for a proper regulator for the enforcement industry. This would in practice provide  oversight of any enforcement interaction, raising standards and giving people struggling with debt greater assurances they’ll be treated fairly in the enforcement process.

The truth is, our advisors hear day in, day out from clients about the impact enforcement action has not only on their financial position and their debts, but also their wellbeing. And this sentiment is borne out by our research, with our council tax debt report, Looking through the keyhole, finding that of StepChange clients surveyed, the vast majority who had experienced bailiff action said it negatively impacted both their mental (95%) and physical health (91%). What’s more, the industry itself is estimated to manage more than seven million individual debts to the tune of £1 billion a year.

There is also the human impact and stigmatisation of facing bailiff action. One client, Jess*, told us that bailiffs feel like “an unstoppable intimidating threat…with no place to hide,” and another told us they were simply “depressed, feeling useless” and with “no relief in sight”. Widespread media narratives around enforcement and debt, mixed in with a previously unregulated environment and with that some cases of bad practice has, in many instances, created a culture of fear. We find that many of our clients are simply unwilling to engage or talk about their experiences due to fear of judgement and a sense of shame.

There is an important place for bailiff enforcement but not when it makes debt problems and hardship worse for financially and otherwise vulnerable people. What we want to see is a more controlled and empathetic environment where avoiding unnecessary harm is equally important as recovering money. This isn’t just about enforcement firms, with the need for organisations using bailiffs to make better checks on appropriateness before escalating bailiff action. What is especially necessary are measures to check whether people are in vulnerable situations before they are met with heavy-handed enforcement action.

Read more:

• Debt is nothing to be ashamed of. It’s time to end the stigma so people can get the help they need
• Half of UK adults have faced problem debt. It can happen to anyone – but help is out there
• Going into debt doesn’t mean you’ve failed. Here’s how to get help

It’s been a long road of influencing, picking up the issue and putting it back down, and there have been many positive, if gradual, forward steps along the way. In 2022, we worked alongside the enforcement industry and the wider debt advice sector to establish a voluntary industry regulator, the Enforcement Conduct Board (ECB), with over nine in 10 bailiff firms signed up to it and paying the associated levy.

The creation of the ECB marked a big change and provided the first mechanism for holding poor practice to account and giving consumers routes to some form of redress. Whilst welcomed, we have always maintained that any voluntary, non-legal body would always have limitations to what it could or could not do, and that bad practice may slip through the cracks. A statutory regulator has always been the end goal.

Now, over four years on, the government has announced it will tackle this voluntary setup by introducing new legislation which will effectively place all bailiff firms under the purview of the ECB. By making it mandatory for bailiffs to work only for or with enforcement firms accredited by the ECB, this means that any firms not currently signed up will essentially have to if they wish to practice. Whilst this isn’t the same as making the ECB a full statutory regulator, it is a huge stepping-stone towards the kind of consumer protection you can expect in energy, water or financial services.

In practice, this will mean that anyone facing bailiff action will know that the agents enforcing their debts must adhere to the ECB’s standards in the process, and, if not, their right to complain and seek recourse will be safeguarded more strongly. We know there’s work to do, but we believe with one last push during this parliamentary session, we can and will get a proportionate and effective regulator over the line to protect consumers and drive up standards.

Vikki Brownridge is CEO of StepChange Debt Charity

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. 

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