Recommendation 14

Almost 86,000 borrowers have been in arrears for more than 90 days as of 10 January 2022.34 We asked the Department what steps it was taking to ensure that its approach to recovering loans was as effective as possible and made best use of the data available to it. We received written evidence from Equifax, which told us that methods widely used by creditors included using credit bureau data on borrowers to understand their financial health; and then grouping together similar borrowers and debts—ranging from those in borrowers who are insolvent to those who are able to repay—and identifying the best action for each group. It explained that, for some, this might be to write off the debt, but for many it might need a bespoke plan for further collection activity using specialist debt collection agencies.35 The Department agreed to consider what more it could do itself to reduce the value of loans written off, including the suggestions made by Equifax.36 The effectiveness of counter-fraud measures