Consumer debt in Britain has been a major topic of discussion in recent months as the numbers of people faced with mounting debt grows by the day. As a result, having been faced with increasing numbers of cases where the individual borrowers find it difficult to repay, banks and lenders are increasingly selling off the debts to collection agencies, thus creating a huge glut of work for these organisations.

The Credit Services Association (CSA), which serves as the voice for 291 debt recovery companies, found that of the ?21 billion in total debt in Britain, ?6 billion had been sold to collection agencies. Last year more than 20 million individual cases were handled by these agencies alone.

But how is it possible to make money from debt? Well, collection agencies purchase these debts from lenders at rates around 90p to the pound. The agency then makes a profit by collecting the full amount of the debt from the borrower. Often it is not worth if for a bank to continue to try to collect from borrowers who frequently miss payments. Once the debts are sold, many borrowers attempt to shrink their debts by avoiding collectors and in some cases go as far as moving home!

Every year the debt collection industry holds an annual conference and it is expected that this year delegates will ask for easier access to people's identity records. This information will help collectors locate people trying to avoid their debts. Some industry professionals believe that in the past the government has been biased too much in favour of the borrower and that this is not necessarily warranted.

Godfrey Lancashire, CSA president said, "people tend to think of the losers being large, faceless corporations, but it can just as easily be a small businessman or a single mother missing out on child support payments".

There is no doubt that debt collectors have received a bad rap in the media, but in this time of debt crisis where many consumers adopt the "buy now, pay later" philosophy, it could be time to pass over some of the criticism to the borrowers. In simple terms, debt recovery agencies such as are only asking for people to meet terms that were agreed to. In some cases this has become impossible, and for these situations there are solutions available.