Debt Collectors are Emptying Families’ Bank Accounts
Weak State Exemption Laws Exacerbate Affordability Crisis, Expand Racial Wealth Gap
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Safe Deposits: How to Protect Family Bank Accounts from Debt Collectors
As debt collection lawsuits surge to pre-pandemic highs, more and more families will see their cash and property seized by debt collectors. All states protect some of a family’s property from seizure by debt collectors to enforce a court ruling for a debt, but in some states the protection is minimal or is so difficult…
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Model Debt Collection Reform Act
This model law, the Model Consumer Debt Collection Reform Act, is intended to protect consumers from the most common abuses in the credit and collections industries, restoring balance to an increasingly lopsided system of justice. It is intended to ensure that consumers receive basic protections as creditors pursue collection lawsuits against them. The…
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Model Family Property and Income Protection Act
This model legislation provides sample language for state laws to prevent debt collectors from seizing a family’s essential income and property to pay old debts. These laws are generally referred to as exemption laws, as they exempt certain income and assets from seizure after a creditor obtains a court judgment to collect a debt. This…
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Report: No States Fully Protect Families from Wage and Asset Seizures as Debt Levels Soar
On State Report Cards, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, Utah, and Wyoming Get Fs; No State Receives an A
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What States Can Do to Protect Low-Income Families When Collecting Government Debts
State debt collection efforts can conflict with state anti-poverty programs. This issue brief discusses how states that seize income tax refunds to collect debts owed to the state may also be seizing safety-net payments such as state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) or Child Tax Credit (CTC) funds. States should follow California’s example to protect…
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USA Today: Debt complaints are surging. Here's the sobering reason.
Appearing in USA Today on Oct. 9, 2025, Daniel de Vise interviews NCLC Senior Attorney April Kuehnhoff for coverage of how and why debt collection complaints are on the rise. “Overwhelmingly, the most common complaint over time has been attempting to collect a debt that’s not owed.” April Kuehnhoff, a senior attorney at the National…
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CFPB Must Supervise Auto Finance, Debt Collection, Credit Reporting, and International Remittance Industries
Rigorous Supervision Is Needed to Protect People from Financial Abuse
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Defining Larger Participants of the Consumer Debt Collection Market
The National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low-income clients) and Consumer Federation of America appreciate the opportunity to submit these comments on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) on whether to propose a rule to amend the test to define larger nonbank participants in the consumer debt…
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U.S. House Bill Would Protect Collection Attorneys Engaged in Abusive Litigation Conduct
A bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, H.R. 3213, Restoring Court Authority Over Litigation Action of 2025 (Fitzgerald, Barr, and Meuser), would harm consumers by removing important protections against abusive litigation conduct by attorneys. This bill would: Congress amended the FDCPA in 1986 to prevent abusive collection practices by attorneys. H.R. 3213 would protect attorneys…
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Memorandum of Support for NY Consumer Debt Uniformity Act (S.5546/ A.57A)
The National Consumer Law Center supports the Consumer Debt Uniformity Act (CDUA), which would expand the protections already in place for consumers in lawsuits involving consumer credit transactions to apply to other types of consumer debt, including medical, rental, and student loan debt.
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Comments on Bureau of Prisons' Proposed Rule on the Inmate Financial Responsibility Program
NCLC submitted comments, co-authored by the Prison Policy Initiative and Stephen Raher, in response to the Bureau of Prisons’ (“BOP”) Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“SNPR”) on the Inmate Financial Responsibility Program (“IFRP”). The IFRP is a nominally voluntary program in federal prisons that is intended to encourage incarcerated people to pay off outstanding government-imposed…
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