Recovery Space - an update

*Updated 29 March 2018*

Despite launching less than a month ago, we have already made great progress with our Recovery Space campaign. We were disappointed that Tuesday’s debate on the Financial Guidance and Claims Bill – the piece of legislation that would establish the ‘breathing space’ debt respite scheme – was postponed, which is the second time we’ve seen this debate moved. However, this is only a temporary delay, and there is still lots to do while we wait for the new date for the debate to be announced after Easter recess.

We want to say a big thank you to everyone who has taken the time to sign our petition letter and write to their MP in support of Recovery Space. Don’t worry if you haven’t done this yet, there is still time to get involved.

More than 70 MPs have added their names to our cross-party amendments to the Bill, which call for the breathing space scheme to be extended to people in mental health crisis. This is fantastic news, and we are grateful to all of these MPs for their support.

Now that the debate has been pushed back, we have a fresh opportunity to get even more MPs to sign-up. This not only improves the chances of our amendment being selected for discussion when a new date is set, but it also sends a clear signal to the government that our proposals have widespread support.

You can help us achieve this goal by writing to your local MP using the quick and easy guide here on our website.

You can also support the Recovery Space campaign by signing our letter to the Chancellor. Since we launched the campaign last month more than 1,600 people have added their names, and every single one of these makes a difference.

It only takes a few seconds to sign, and you can also opt-in to receive updates on how the campaign is progressing.

We are very grateful to all the individuals and organisations who have been sharing our campaign on social media. The level of support has been incredible. If you have a social media account and want to help us spread the word, this can be as easy as retweeting our Twitter posts or sharing a link to the campaign page on Facebook.

This is a frustrating delay, but we remain as determined as ever to make sure people experiencing a mental health crisis will be able to access the protections that will be offered by the breathing space scheme. While we wait for our next opportunity to influence legislation, we will continue working hard to keep this issue on the agenda and hope you will join us.