So you think they are all single mums and cancer victims? Having...

So you think they are all single mums and cancer victims? Having spent a good part of my career in the industry I can assure you that some of our wealthiest individuals are some of the worst payers and were in the "able but unwilling to pay" stable. Often their brinksmanship would lead to a day before court action was scheduled before they would pay. You need a stint in the second rung finance industry before making the statements you are making. My company was very lenient on any single mum and did everything to help if they showed they were trying to overcome their difficulties and that did not necessarily mean paying at all costs. As for people who had serious injuries and health issues which changed their abilities to pay to zero - they were written off and all we asked for was some form of proof. Your premise to allow payment of bad debts to be regulated to 5-20% of the amount owing would just lead to the same deal being applied across the board and credit would become virtually non- existant unless it was all secured against something very tangible.