Credit control statistics: UK late payment, chasing and cost data

You are about to set payment terms, price a credit control tool, or make the case for chasing harder. These figures show how your experience compares with other businesses. Each one names its publisher, its sample and its period, so you can judge how far it applies to you.

How common is late payment for UK businesses?

Late payment is common for UK businesses: government-commissioned research puts it at 28% of businesses a year, and Atradius finds about two thirds of UK firms report delayed payments from business customers.

How long do UK businesses wait to be paid?

UK small businesses on Xero waited 29.5 days to be paid in the September 2026 quarter, and large UK businesses took an average of 32 days to pay their suppliers in 2025.

What does late payment cost UK businesses?

Late payment costs the UK economy almost £11 billion a year and leaves businesses owed an estimated £26 billion at any time, according to modelling for the Department for Business and Trade.

The hours spent chasing, 86 a year per affected business, are covered on the accounts receivable statistics page, with US and European data.

How do UK businesses chase late payment?

Most UK businesses chase late payment informally: 68% chase informally and 27% formally, and a third of those who do not chase formally say they want to protect the customer relationship.

The government's own assessment says statutory interest is rarely charged or collected by the businesses owed it (DBT options assessment). No source we opened gives a percentage.

Do payment reminders reduce late payment?

Payment reminders do raise payment rates in randomised trials, though the published trials cover tax debts and consumer payments rather than business invoices.

• Tax debts, Australia: a reminder letter raised the probability of payment by about 25 percentage points against no letter, and the timing of the reminder made no difference to whether the debt was paid (IZA discussion paper 11599).
• Consumer pay-later, Netherlands: 84.85% of customers sent an SMS reminder paid in full before a late fee, and 81.48% of those sent none, across 34,365 customers (AFM with Riverty).

The how to automate credit control guide covers how to set up reminders on your own invoices.

What is changing in UK late payment law?

The UK government plans to make statutory interest on late business payments mandatory at 8% above the Bank of England base rate and to cap payment terms at 60 days, announced in March 2026 and still to pass into law.

The government announcement gives a worked case: a £10,000 invoice paid late becomes £10,293.15, made up of £193.15 interest and £100 compensation. The UK late payment fees guide covers what you can charge today.

What are the late payment statistics for Australia, New Zealand and the US?

Australian and New Zealand small businesses wait less time to be paid than UK and US ones: 24.3 and 25.4 days on Xero data, against 29.5 days in the UK and 29.7 in the US.

How these statistics were chosen

These statistics come from government research, official payment data, credit insurers and named surveys, opened at the source; a figure seen only in a news story or search summary is left out.

What do people ask about credit control statistics?