Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
Scotland recorded 3,517 businesses in critical financial distress in Q4 2025, up from 2,353 in Q4 2024 — a 49.5% year-on-year increase, according to the Business Distress Index compiled by Real Business Rescue. That rise is higher than the UK-wide average of 43.8%, where critical distress nationally reached 67,369 businesses by the end of the…
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The new Ofgem price cap of £1,641, effective from 1st April 2026, represents a 7 per cent (£117) fall on current (Q1 2026) levels, bringing a welcome boost to strained household budgets. The main driver of lower prices is the Government’s £6.9 billion energy discount announced at last year’s Budget, which moves some policy costs from…
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Too often, businesses enter formal restructuring or insolvency processes not because solutions don’t exist, but because the right advice arrives too late. By the time many owner-managers seek help, the pressure has already crystallised into a crisis. Cash has tightened, creditors are restless, lenders are nervous, and leadership teams are exhausted. At that stage, the…
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Two leading think tanks say the freeze on tax thresholds until 2031 is a major stealth tax on working households. The Resolution Foundation estimates 1.7 million people will be pulled into paying tax or into higher bands. The OBR forecasts higher-rate taxpayers rising from 7.2 million to 8.9 million, and additional-rate taxpayers from 1.2 million…
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The Energy Price Cap will unexpectedly rise by £3 a year in January, as a rise in the costs of government policies that are added to energy bills cancels out a small fall in gas prices. The Resolution Foundation says this makes clear that more action is needed in the Budget to cut bills significantly.…
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Headline CPI inflation held steady at 3.8 per cent in September – defying expectations of a rise to 4 per cent – but this welcome surprise comes at the wrong time for the millions of households receiving benefits according to the Resolution Foundation. The September inflation rate is used to determine benefit uprating the following…
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At the Autumn Budget last year, the Chancellor tightened the rules surrounding poor payment practices by introducing deterrents for late taxpayers and encouraging large businesses to improve payment culture. Late payments are responsible for stifling growth, eliminating investment opportunities, and creating serious cash flow shortfalls for SMEs, which subsequently raises the risk of insolvency, hinders…
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Earlier this year, a House of Lords committee delivered a damning verdict on the FCA’s much debated ‘naming and shaming’ plans. Consultation on the regulator’s proposed policy to publish the names of companies under investigation was called an ‘abject failure’ by the House of Lords Financial Services Regulation Committee, which advised that the plan be…
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Cifas’ annual Fraud Behaviours Survey – research into public attitudes to committing fraud – is a useful bellwether into society’s attitudes to lying for financial gain. Year-on-year our fraud behaviours work has demonstrated a growing normalisation of fraud by the UK public and the findings in the latest survey are no exception. Nearly half (48%)…
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The goalposts for Members’ Voluntary Liquidation taxes are changing as announced in the Autumn Budget, Labour’s first major fiscal announcement since coming into power. As the government set out to raise a record £40 billion through tax rises, Capital Gains Tax and Business Asset Disposal Relief, both crucial to an MVL, came under the firing…
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The UK economy unexpectedly grew at the end of last year, despite the Bank of England predicting last week it would be in recession territory. But GDP per capita – which closely tracks disposable income growth – is still lower today than it was before the pandemic, the Resolution Foundation. Having grown by 1.1 per…
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Buy-now pay-later is heading into uncertain terrain. Prior to being elected, Labour signalled its intention to tighten up the law as it applies to this unregulated niche of financial services, unhappy with the fact that a third of such loans are not paid off at the end of the term and 20% of borrowers miss…
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Increases in average salaries are still struggling to overcome ever rising costs in core expenditure for many UK households, with more signs of people leaning into credit to make ends meet, according to the November 2024 Money Statistics, produced by The Money Charity. Hard-pressed UK households will have welcomed the news of average salary rises…
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