The government has overtaken banks and payday lenders as the UK’s harshest debt collector and is twice as likely to push borrowers into problem debt, according to a report published today by the Centre for Social Justice think tank.
Councils and government departments are sitting on a £13.5bn mountain of personal debt which includes parking fines, tax credit and universal credit overpayment debt and council tax arrears.
Payday lenders such as Wonga were forced to soften debt collection practices and limit interest rates in the aftermath of the financial crisis by legislation such as the High Cost Credit Bill.
The Conservative MP and former education secretary Damian Hinds, who co-sponsored this bill in 2013, writes in the report that public sector debt collection practices must
