With a payment holiday, you do not pay anything to your creditors. But: Interest and charges may continue to be added and You need to make up the missed payments in the future Payment holidays are agreed between you and your lender. You cannot take a payment holiday if they do not agree to one. Breathing Space does not stop your payments from becoming due. You still need to make them. But: Interest and charges are frozen Your creditors cannot demand repayments You apply for Breathing Space via a debt advisor, who registers your details with the Insolvency Service. Your creditors must comply with Breathing Space.
Breathing Space is administered by the Insolvency Service, a government agency. They register people on Breathing Space and notify their creditors. They also send out communications when Breathing Space ends after 60 days.
Some debts are not included in Breathing Space. These are usually debts that are not in bankruptcy or other formal debt solutions, like: Criminal fines Child maintenance Student loans Personal injury debts Your debt advice provider will discuss what to do about debts that cannot be included while you are registering on the scheme.
Breathing Space does not directly affect your credit score, but missed payments are recorded on your credit file. Breathing Space is not recorded on your credit file, but if a creditor knows about it, this may affect your ability to borrow from them.
Being self-employed does not necessarily mean you could not get Breathing Space, but we cannot help with your application. We usually refer self-employed people to Business Debtline, another charity. They provide specialist debt advice for the self-employed. They can assist you with: Your eligibility for Breathing Space Your subsequent application process
After Breathing Space ends, your creditors can start contacting you again and take further action on your debts. Any action that paused because of Breathing Space may resume. You should continue working on getting your debt solution in place, so that you have a longer-term plan to deal with your debts.