Letter to my MP James Plaskitt | Credit Sentence Higher than for a Murderer

Dear James,

I am very pleased to be writing to you again as my MP for the third term and congratulations on your first government post. Well done and I am sorry I was not around during the election.

I am writing about an issue which plagues people's lives, where individuals, couples and whole families are blighted because of effective prison sentences into high cost credit or no credit at all. I am talking about the current credit agencies "six year rule". This is where a debt once defaulted will be registered with a credit reference agency for six years, irregardless of whether the debt is repaid sooner than six years. This is very unfair. Surely it is reasonable to note the difficulties, but once the debt has been repaid, the reference on an individual's credit file should be removed?

Is there anything that the government can do to tackle this issue? People should not be punished for so long after making a mistake. I have some friends who are in this position and they are struggling.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Bell