Creditor applications to deduct debts straight from debtors’ pay packets (attachment of earnings) soared 15% in the year to 30 June 2012, according to new research.

The amount of consumer debt passed to UK debt collection agencies rose to £62 billion in the third quarter of 2012, the highest level recorded in over a year.

Some 300,000 Britons who haven’t filed their tax returns for 2011 could face “debt-recovery actions”

Debt Collection agencies are set to face tougher, more intrusive and expensive regulation under plans being drawn up in Whitehall.

AN ARMY of “zombie companies” being kept afloat by record low interest rates have hit business recovery group Begbies Traynor’s earnings in the last six months.

Campaigners have called on the government to ensure debt collectors have high standards when collecting tax credit overpayments.

The OFT has also published revised Debt Collection Guidance, focusing on continuous payment authority (CPA), a mechanism commonly used by payday lenders to collect repayments.

Cash-flow problems that could leave companies unable to “fund any future recovery” are affecting one in four small businesses.

Global firms in the UK that pay little or no tax are an "insult" to British businesses, a committee of MPs says.

Accounting giant Ernst & Young is to be sued over the collapse of Anglo Irish Bank in 2009.