DMBM617010 - Pre-enforcement: Fast Track recovery action for important and significant cases: introduction and overview

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Such charges include low value debts raised as a result of intervention work such as penalties for failure to supply information and small settlements. Although these are low in relative value, these penalties are a key tool in driving up compliance.

There had been concerns that failure to collect such debts treated customers inequitably and had a negative impact on customer behaviour should customers realise that lower value debts are not being pursued.

Compliance staff will identify the appropriate charges and refer them to

  • Field Force in England, Wales and Northern Ireland
  • the Summary Warrant Office in Scotland.

This procedure supports the effort to tackle non-compliant behaviour by targeting such behaviour.

Reduction of spurious debt

In conjunction with this, compliance caseworkers are also taking measures to reduce the amount of spurious debts, enabling debt management staff to focus on genuine debts and returns.