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There is a widespread feeling that this is a humiliating procedure, and one which is rarely effective in raising significant sums towards meeting debts. 82% of warrant sales made no contribution whatever to paying the original debt, and only partly paid off the expenses of the process. Much of the debate has therefore focused on the need to provide effective alternatives. The Executive has recently established a cross-party Parliamentary working group to "identify the essential elements of an alternative to poinding and sale". In addition to MSPs, "others invited, who can bring the perspectives of both creditor and debtor to the group, include Citizens Advice Scotland, the Scottish Consumer Council, Money Advice Scotland, and the Institute of Credit Management". Jim Wallace said that "the group will be faced with a challenging but extremely important task and will have to work to a tight time scale … following on from the work of the group, we will introduce legislation no later than the 2001-02 parliamentary year". An informal group, with wider representation of voluntary sector groups, including the churches, has been looking at ways of improving and humanising debt recovery; it will produce a report to feed into the cross-party group. A major part of the debate in the autumn will be on the date for implementing the Bill, with the Executive seeking to postpone that until its alternative proposals are in place while others are keen to impose more urgency on that process. 4. Bank Arrestment Other forms of diligence include "arrestment" of wages or bank accounts. To recover a debt, it is possible to "arrest" money held by a third party for the debtor. A creditor can receive payment directly from the debtor's earnings, or from some social security benefits, or from a debtor's bank account. In the former two cases, there are restrictions on the amount that can be deducted, to ensure that the debtor retains sufficient for basic living expenses. However, if money in a bank is arrested, the account can be frozen up to the full amount of the debt - leaving the debtor with no available funds. Alex Neil MSP has proposed a Bank Arrestment Bill - not yet formally introduced into Parliament - "to provide safeguards for debtors with bank accounts by restricting the extent to which an arrestment attaches to monies in bank accounts; and by providing a new sheriff court procedure, to be known as an arrestment restriction order, whereby a debtor may apply to the sheriff for an order releasing monies from arrestment". The Executive "recognise and are sympathetic to the concerns … and are also sympathetic, in principle, to the idea of preserving within bank accounts arrested a basic sum, similar to the protection that already exists when earnings are arrested", but argue that considerably more work needs to be done on this. Jim Wallace has indicated that this will be included in the remit of the cross-party working group. 5. Mortgage Repossessions & Evictions Mortgage Repossession Orders in Scotland increased from 2058 in 1994 to 5952 in 1999, leading to expressions of concern in the form of two Bills - Robert Brown's Family Homes and Homelessness (Scotland) Bill and Cathy Craigie's Mortgage Rights (Scotland) Bill. The Executive have offered support to Cathy Craigie's Bill, which would "allow courts to consider the individual circumstances of the debtor and the possibility of giving time to arrange alternative accommodation". Robert Brown's Bill is directed at avoiding homelessness. It covers tenancies as well as mortgages, and also deals with changes in court procedures; it has had a preliminary discussion in the Parliamentary Committee. 6. Bankruptcy Bankruptcy is the way in which the legal system deals with debt that cannot be repaid in the foreseeable future. It offers the possibility of a fresh start to people trapped in a cycle of debt from which there seems no escape. Ten years ago, personal bankruptcies were spiralling, and the law was changed -to make access to bankruptcy more difficult.
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