Legislation change makes debt-chasing more difficult

A drastic change in legislation has made scrupulous credit control and persistent debt-chasing more important than ever before.

In a nutshell, the debt threshold at which a creditor can issue a statutory demand to a debtor has increased from £750 to £5,000.

In theory, issuing a statutory demand allows a creditor to effectively chase money owed to them – giving the debtor 21 days to pay (or make arrangements to do so).

What does this mean in practical terms?

Quite clearly, this big change is sure to leave many creditors with much less debt-chasing security than they previously had, as they can now only issue a statutory demand for an amount of £5,000 or over.

For example, if a creditor regularly has to chase debts of around £1,000 from specific customers, they will now be considerably less able to do so effectively. It goes without saying that this could have extremely negative repercussions on company cash flow – and quite quickly.

Expert credit control now more vital than ever

With this change giving creditors less options, careful credit control has become even more important and crucial to financial security.

If you have an experienced and skilled credit control department, you will be in a good position to prevent many problems before they arise. For example, an experienced and talented risk analyst will identify problematic customers early on through research.

Portfolio can help you find skilled credit controllers

We specialise in the recruitment of credit control staff – from senior figures with years of practical experience to more junior and entry-level workers.

If you have specific requirements for your staff, we will factor this into our recruitment campaign and ensure that only candidates who fully meet the criteria get through for interview.

For more information about how we can strengthen your credit control department, contact us.