Help that is actually there

Free, and they do not cold-call

Business Debtline is run by the charity Money Advice Trust. It is the only national free debt-advice service built for small business owners and the self-employed, including limited-company directors with personal exposure. In 2024 they helped tens of thousands of people by phone and webchat.

• Phone: 0800 197 6026
• Hours: Monday to Friday, 9am–8pm
• Webchat on their own site
• They will never call you first, email you out of the blue, or WhatsApp you. If that happens, it is not them. They will never ask you to pay.

They will not take an administration appointment. They will help you understand the personal side — guarantees, loans you signed, what to say to creditors — and when you need a licensed insolvency practitioner instead.

National Debtline (0808 808 4000) is the sister service for personal debt. Use it when the company's collapse has become your overdraft, your credit cards, your second-charge, your personal guarantee.

Citizens Advice can help with the personal side and with basic signposting. They are not a substitute for a licensed IP on a limited-company insolvency.

Check the Charity Commission if a "debt charity" is asking for a fee. Money Advice Trust's charity number is 1099506. They are also FCA-authorised to give debt advice.

Licensed insolvency practitioners

A limited company's formal options — creditors' voluntary liquidation, administration, CVA, the Part A1 moratorium, a restructuring plan — run through people who are licensed. Not "commercial finance consultants". Not "company rescue" Facebook ads.

Find one via GOV.UK: Find an insolvency practitioner. The Recognised Professional Bodies are the gate. A first conversation is commonly without a fee. Use it before you sign another sweep.

Tells that you are not speaking to a licensed IP:

• they rang you;
• they will not give a licence number or RPB;
• they want a card payment today to "stop the petition";
• they promise the company will be "saved" before they have seen a single figure;
• they are also, coincidentally, a broker with a same-day product.

R3, the trade body, is a useful orientation. It is not itself a regulator.

HMRC

If you cannot pay your tax bill on time. Payment Support Service for VAT. File first, then talk. HMRC Time to Pay is the lesson. Do not pay a third party to "negotiate HMRC" until you have tried the free door, and do not let them keep you off the call.

The company moratorium (Part A1)

The Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 added a standalone moratorium to the Insolvency Act 1986. It is debtor-in-possession: directors stay in control, with a licensed insolvency practitioner as monitor.

• Initial period: 20 business days, starting the business day after it comes into force.
• Directors can extend by another 20 business days without creditor consent (after the first 15 business days, with the statutory statements).
• Longer extensions need creditors or the court. A pending CVA can extend it.
• The monitor must believe it is likely the moratorium will result in rescue of the company as a going concern.
• Some debts still have to be paid (including certain financial-services debts). If those are not paid, the moratorium cannot continue.
• It is not automatic, not free, and not a way to hide from HMRC forever. It is breathing space to structure a rescue, not a product a warehouse can sell you on a call.

The individual Debt Respite Scheme ("breathing space") is for people, not for limited companies. Do not mix them up.

Other formal tools, in one line each

• CVA — a deal with creditors, 75% by value to approve, company keeps trading. Needs an IP.
• Administration — statutory moratorium, administrator takes over, purpose is rescue as a going concern or a better result for creditors than liquidation. Directors lose day-to-day control.
• Restructuring plan (Part 26A Companies Act) — court process, can bind dissenting classes. Expensive. Real, not a flyer.
• Creditors' voluntary liquidation — the honest end when rescue is not there. Still needs an IP. Still better than trading on until a petition.

Financial Ombudsman Service — who can actually use it

The Ombudsman is not a commercial court for every SME facility.

Micro-enterprise: fewer than 10 people, and turnover or balance sheet not more than €2 million.

Small business (for events from 1 April 2019): annual turnover less than £6.5 million, and either fewer than 50 staff or a balance sheet total less than £5 million.

Personal guarantors of a business they are involved in can sometimes complain. The firm you complain about must be in the Ombudsman's jurisdiction — typically FCA-authorised. A lot of commercial credit and a lot of commercial brokers sit outside that perimeter when the purpose is business. Check the FCA Register for the legal name on the letter. Check who the Ombudsman can help.

A warehouse telling you "take it, you can always go to the Ombudsman" is not a plan. Many of their products will never get there.

FCA Register, Companies House, Insolvency Service

• FCA Register — is this firm authorised to do what it is doing, under that name.
• Companies House — charges, filing history, who actually owns the broker.
• Insolvency Service — director guidance, redundancy payments if it gets that far, enforcement.

What to ignore

• Cold calls offering to "save the company" or "stop the petition today".
• Google ads that are lead-gen for a packager you did not choose, or for an unlicensed "rescue" shop.
• Anyone who wants a fee before they have looked at a single number, and will not put their licence on the email.
• Anyone who tells you not to speak to HMRC, not to speak to an IP, and not to tell the other director.

Where Strata sits

After the free advice, after the IP conversation if you need it, after HMRC is a fact rather than a rumour: if there is still a refinance that can last, a packager builds the file. Strata packages. We do not lend. The 60-second assessment is the public door. It is not a substitute for Business Debtline or a licensed IP, and it will not take a personal guarantee off a house at 17:00 on a Friday.