Applying for a Debt Relief Order
Can the IMA help me to apply?
Although we are a Competent Authority for DRO Intermediaries, the IMA cannot itself give advice. A DRO might be an option you but in order to apply for one you will need to first get advice and have your application completed by an Approved Intermediary.
How do I find an adviser?
We hope that the Insolvency Service will soon have a list of agencies with Intermediaries on their website but in the mean time you can follow the link to find a free adviser by entering your geographical location and selecting debt as the area of law from the list: http://www.communitylegaladvice.org.uk/en/directory/directorysearch.jsp The advice agencies on this list are those which have a Community Legal Services (CLS) Quality Mark but there are other agencies in addition to this who provide free debt advice and who have DRO Intermediaries. You can Google these by entering ‘Free Debt or Money Advice in... (your area)’ but please beware that this search may turn up loan companies or companies who charge for their services.
There are a number of telephone based advice agencies who also have approved DRO Intermediaries (with freephone numbers). The contact details for these will be on the bottom of the CLS directory list under National Agencies. You may also be able to make contact with them by email.
Alternatively you can refer to the list of other Competent Authorities on the Insolvency Service website. Other than the £90 fee you can not be charged for being advised on or applying for a DRO.
Once you locate a local or national free debt adviser they will either be an approved intermediary who can complete a DRO application for you or they should have researched which other agencies in the locality do have an Approved Intermediary so that they can help you with a referral or signpost you appropriately.
