A friend stood guarantor for a £1,000 laptop bought by her adult son. He has sold the computer, and now he’s stopped giving her the £14 a week repayment. Could she take him to court and have the money taken from his benefits to cover the debt?
County Court rules prohibit the equivalent of an attachment of earnings order on DWP benefits. The best a court could offer would probably be an oral examination of the son’s means, at which repayment terms could be agreed. But if the son failed to pay, the mother would have to apply for authorisation for a bailiff to seize goods. These measures all cost and I think your friend would probably be throwing good money after bad. She would probably get further by giving her son a good talking to.