An innovative approach to the issues of public debt trialled in Tayside could be a model for the rest of the country, a leading charity has suggested.

The Herald has run a special investigation into the issue of child poverty in Scotland in recent days.

Aberlour, Scotland's largest children's charity, has highlighted the issue of public debt and the effect it can have on families.

The charity ran a three-year pilot, Family Financial Wellbeing Tayside, which took a series of innovative steps, including paying off public debts such as council tax and rent arrears.

The awards made through its hardship fund averaged £2,700 per family, providing direct assistance to help them out of debt.

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It also offered expert advice, with three local councils supporting the service to look at how debt recovery can be changed to ensure it doesn't push families further into hardship while repaying their debts.

The Aberlour Family Financial Wellbeing Tayside pilot identified systemic shortcomings in debt collection practices, particularly the lack of coordination among public debt collectors.

This often resulted in simultaneous deductions from wages and benefits by multiple public agencies, exacerbating financial hardship for disadvantaged families.

Dundee City Council has introduced a new debt collection charter, which will give debtors who may owe money to several different departments a single point of contact.

Aberlour CEO Sallyann Kelly said: "We’ve been doing a pilot in Tayside with families where we pay off debts for families and help them manage their money in a different kind of way.

“Some of the outputs from that service have been really significant, we’ve reduced the number of children at risk of coming into care, we’ve helped parents into employment and education.

“What managing the debt does for them, is it frees up that headroom. They no longer have this incessant worry about how they’re going to put the next meal on the table and they can start to think about opportunities that might be available to them.

“So there’s real progress been made in that project for some of the families, and what the report tells us is that actually living as a family is a much nicer experience because we’re not fighting about money, I’m not worrying every time the kids ask for a sweetie at the shop – I don’t always have to say no to my children.

"It was direct work with families as I’ve just described, but the other aspect of that work has been to work with public bodies who recover debt from families to have discussions about how they could potentially manage that differently.

“So that work is ongoing, but they’ve all given a commitment to continuing to discuss how they can take a more humane, compassionate approach to debt recovery.

“There are various third sector organisations involved in that, we now have a member of staff who is going to look at what we’re doing in Tayside but try to develop it across the country.

“Some of this is really systemic, it’s about how systems have grown up and matured and at times become too disconnected from the people they’re supposed to serve.

“So it’s how you get in about that with the people in the systems who are under the cosh, get them together and help them realise how they want to work and support the citizens they’re there to serve.

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“There’s lots of really good intent within the system, and lots of public service employees who are fantastic people with fantastic values  - it’s how you bring all that together across the whole system to make it as powerful as you can.

"There’s a real mixed bag out there in terms of council approaches.

“We found it went from councils who voluntarily wrote off debt because they knew that realistically they’d never recover it and the cost of recovery was greater, to councils who were using sheriff officers to pursue very small amounts of debt.

“The action of the sheriff officer recovering the debt was actually more expensive than the debt in the first place.

“That’s part of what we think a Scottish debt recovery management policy needs to address, the variability.

“It shouldn’t matter where you live in Scotland, if you get into trouble with a public body around money there should be the same response to you wherever you live."

Martin Canavan, head of policy and participation at Aberlour, said the work of the service to help families find financial stability and escape poverty should be a template for public debt relief across Scotland.

He said the pilot scheme has confirmed how helping change the pursuit and collection of public debt can ease child poverty.

He said: “In Tayside, we have shown how councils can change and improve how debt can be recovered without the immediate need for national legislation.

“The public sector can recover debt differently, in a more compassionate way that will help them escape poverty and not risk making their financial situation even worse.

“It means families prevented from becoming homeless, children prevented from being taken into care, and families being supported back into work.

“These are tangible, practical outcomes that benefit families and their communities.”