Jenni Buckland, Partnerships Manager at The Money Advice Trust, discusses the challenges business owners in the UK face when tackling their debts and managing their finances with confidence. This is where the invaluable service provided by Business Debtline comes in — supporting individuals like Graham, who experienced intense stress due to his debts, and later, immense relief once Business Debtline stepped in to support.

Business Debtline

Jenni told us that The Money Advice Trust runs Business Debtline, which is the only free debt advice service specifically for small business owners and self-employed individuals. She said: “The Business Debtline helps business owners across the UK in tackling their debts and managing their finances with confidence. In 2024, almost 15% of callers to the service who categorised their business said they were in the construction industry. This equates to over 5,000 construction businesses supported by the service in one year alone.

Average debts reported by customers helped by Business Debtline in 2024 were over £49,000, excluding tax debts. Using the most basic of maths, that works out as over £247 million worth of business debt in the construction industry supported by Business Debtline in 2024.

“Staggeringly, statistics show that the equivalent of two construction workers die by suicide every day — nearly four times the rate of any other sector (ONS).”

Against this backdrop, Jenni shared with us the story of Graham, whose business was experiencing serious financial difficulties. His experience perfectly illustrates what support from Business Debtline truly means for small business owners.

Graham’s story

“I kept getting emails, phone calls, and letters. You know, when you dread the postman walking up the path, that’s not a good thing. And every time the phone rings, I was not answering, I muted the phone and turned it off,” Graham told Jenni.

He said: “You keep opening these letters and there’s a raft of information from the FCA, which is great that I’m assuming that all banks and credit cards have to put into their stuff. I read through it, and thought I’ve got to get some help from somewhere.

“I decided to speak to Business Debtline. I spoke to a debt adviser and the guy was phenomenal. His experience, his knowledge, his help. He just said, right, don’t take this and, don’t take that. If they say this, say that, but speak to them. Speak to all of the people that you owe money to and just have a conversation. Just put a letter together and send it to all of them. We did that and there were no dragons out there waiting to eat us. They all came back and said ‘that’s fine, let’s have a chat’.

“My debt adviser did an amazing job on putting together our budget plan, which we could send to all our creditors. They actually accepted it because it was from Business Debtline.

They all just turned around and said ‘that’s fine’. Some of them actually said to me ‘we’re not going to ask you to pay any money for at least 6 to 12 months because you haven’t got enough’. This fascinated me because they weren’t prepared to take my money even though I wanted to pay them back.

“I cannot say how invaluable the debt advisers are.

“It was just so good. And the nice thing is, is when you speak to Business Debtline, the phone stops ringing. We never saw the postman, it was great!”

He concluded by saying: “The stress levels that me and my wife were at just came right down, and we’ve made all these agreements. Some of them have gone completely now, some of them are still being paid, but we’re getting no grief from any of them.

“And, it’s all because of Business Debtline.”

Jenni said: “Graham’s story demonstrates that speaking to someone and making a plan to find a way out of debt is vital, and it was pivotal in reducing the stress that Graham and his wife were feeling.”

She went onto explain that, more broadly, customer insight shows the significant impact of debt advice interventions delivered by Business Debtline:

  • 90% of callers saw their debts reduce or stabilise
  • 57% of business owners who sought advice about business viability said our advice helped them continue to trade
  • 85% of customers are now engaging with creditors
  • 90% feel less likely to be in a similar situation in the future.

She concluded by saying: “Small businesses play a critical role in the UK economy, particularly within the construction sector. But too many are currently being held back by financial difficulties, with our research revealing that a third of self-employed people (33%) in the UK are regularly losing sleep worrying about money1.

“In this context, we are proud to offer the only dedicated, free debt advice service for small business owners and self-employed people. In 2024, we helped 37,800 small business owners over the phone (up 32% from 2023) and 15,400 by webchat, with more than 667,000 website visits.”

How to access support

The debt advice we provide is free and impartial for self-employed people and small business owners. The service is run by the charity, the Money Advice Trust and can be contacted on 0800 197 6026 or via www.businessdebtline.org.