Breathing space - UK wide government programme to pause debt

This resource is managed and delivered in England by Rethink Mental Illness and is available to patients who are being supported by Crisis and Community teams

• If a client completes the referral they are granted 30/60 days of their debts being paused (depends on their situation to how long granted).
• If a mental health professional completes the referral the client is granted debts to be paused while they are within the service/in a crisis bracket and unable to pay for such debts then 30 days after this period ends. Please note that following a referral completed the advisors will check in every 30 days to check whether this individual is receiving support and requires breathing space support.
• Debts are paused this means that interest is stopped and companies are prevented from contacting the client and/or stopping any future legal action. A bank overdraft is a form of areas (debt) to the bank, therefore this means that overdrafts are paused within this to prevent future interest and financial complications in the future. Of course in situations that a client is using their overdraft as their funds they are advised by breathing space workers to create a separate bank account with a new bank and move all funds in there as banks may wish to freeze accounts due to awareness that interest cannot be increased.
• Breathing space offers caseworkers as it is ran by Rethink this means that compared to other organisations, clients are assigned a case worker. This means that they have one point of contact throughout rather than having to relay any discussion to other workers.