Breathing Space: pausing creditors while you get advice

The official name is the Debt Respite Scheme, set out in regulations that came into force on 4 May 2021. There are two kinds: a standard breathing space, and a mental health crisis breathing space for people receiving crisis treatment. Neither is a solution in itself. It gives you time to get advice and choose one.

Free, impartial debt advice is available from MoneyHelper, StepChange, Citizens Advice and National Debtline, and the adviser is the person who applies for Breathing Space for you. See where to get free debt advice.

What does Breathing Space stop?

During a breathing space, for the debts included in it:

• your creditors cannot contact you to ask for payment
• they cannot add interest, fees or charges
• enforcement action is paused, including court action and enforcement agents.

It does not stop you owing the money, and gov.uk says you should still make your debt repayments if you can. You must keep paying your ongoing costs, such as rent or mortgage, council tax that falls due and energy bills, because a breathing space is not a payment holiday. Creditors can still contact you about things unrelated to the included debts.

You must also not take on new credit of more than £500 while it lasts.

Which debts are not covered?

Most debts can be included, including arrears on priority bills. These cannot:

• secured debts such as a mortgage (though arrears on a mortgage or secured loan can be included)
• debts arising from fraud
• court fines
• child maintenance and other family court or child support orders
• Social Fund loans and student loans
• damages for personal injury
• Universal Credit advances.

Council tax is only included once it is in arrears. The current year’s instalments that are not yet due still have to be paid.

Who can get Breathing Space?

For a standard breathing space, the debt adviser must be satisfied that you:

• live, or usually live, in England or Wales
• owe at least one qualifying debt
• cannot pay, or are unlikely to be able to pay, some or all of your debts as they fall due
• are not in a DRO or IVA, subject to an interim order, or an undischarged bankrupt
• are not already in a breathing space, and have not had a standard breathing space that ended in the last 12 months.

The adviser also has to decide a breathing space is appropriate for you. If it is, and you meet the conditions, they must start one.

How do you get one?

Only a debt advice provider authorised by the FCA for debt counselling, or a council providing debt advice, can start a breathing space. You cannot apply yourself.

1. Contact a debt adviser. MoneyHelper’s debt advice locator lists free services near you, online and by phone.
2. The adviser goes through your debts and circumstances and decides whether a breathing space is appropriate.
3. If it is, they start it through the Insolvency Service’s electronic service, which notifies the creditors whose debts are included.
4. Between day 25 and day 35 the adviser carries out a midway review to check you are still eligible and engaging.
5. By the end, you and your adviser should have a plan, which could be a debt management plan, a debt relief order, bankruptcy, an IVA or something informal.

It is free to apply, although gov.uk warns that some debt advisers may charge you a fee. If a firm charges you, check it on the FCA register first.

The mental health crisis breathing space

If you are receiving mental health crisis treatment, the protection lasts for as long as the treatment, plus 30 days, with no fixed maximum. The 12-month limit does not apply, so you can have one even if you recently had a standard breathing space.

Crisis treatment means treatment that would justify detention in hospital or removal to a place of safety, or other crisis, emergency or acute treatment that an Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) considers equally serious. An AMHP has to provide evidence that you are receiving it.

You do not have to apply yourself. A carer, an AMHP, a care co-ordinator, a mental health nurse, a social worker or an appointed advocate can go to a debt adviser on your behalf.

If debt is affecting your mental health, see our guide to debt and your mental health.

Will Breathing Space affect your credit file?

Starting a breathing space does not put a marker on your credit file, and there is no code left behind afterwards. But creditors that report whether payments are made will keep doing so, so missed payments can still show. The Breathing Space register is private. The users who can see your entry are you, your adviser and the creditors who have been notified, and your details are deleted 15 months after the breathing space ends.

What people get wrong about Breathing Space

• Thinking it freezes everything. Excluded debts, ongoing bills and priority costs carry on.
• Treating it as the fix. It ends after 60 days (standard) whatever you have done, so use the time to get a plan in place.
• Leaving it too late. It pauses enforcement but does not undo what has already happened, such as a court judgment.
• Assuming every adviser will offer one. Numbers fell sharply from late 2025, after StepChange, which had registered more than half of all breathing spaces since 2021, changed its suitability criteria. In July 2026 there were 5,248 registrations, 38% fewer than a year earlier. If one adviser says no, you can ask another.

The scheme is available in England and Wales only. Scotland has a separate 6-month moratorium (see debt solutions in Scotland), and Northern Ireland does not have a scheme yet. For how Breathing Space fits with the other options, see debt solutions compared.

What to do next

1. Contact a free debt adviser and tell them if creditors or enforcement agents are pressing you, so they can consider a breathing space straight away.
2. Keep paying your rent or mortgage, current council tax and energy.
3. Use the time to gather your figures and agree a longer-term plan with the adviser.