Debtors face court fee increase

17/02/2009

Fees at debtors' courts are set to rise, as the economic downturn puts more and more people at risk of going bankrupt.

Despite an expected rise in bankruptcy conditions the charges will be hiked by 233 per cent in May 2010, if proposals revealed in a Ministry of Justice consultation document are adopted.

Economists predict that the recession will last throughout 2009, however - with some business groups expecting unemployment to rise from two million to three million over the year.

This would have a likely knock-on effect on personal debts, making more and more people insolvent and forcing them into the debtors' court.

The proposals were criticised by shadow justice secretary Dominic Grieve.

"It is bad enough that ministers should address their own budget problems by fleecing people struggling with indebtedness, but to do so in the depths of a recession takes a special kind of cynicism," he said.

"While Gordon Brown mouths platitudes about helping people, he is plotting a stealth tax on those in debt."

The Ministry of Justice said that "no decisions" have yet been taken on whether or not to adopt the consultation's recommendations.

Tags; Budgeting Advice, Young Family Finances, Credit Card Lifestyle,

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