A penniless, single mother of three threatened with jail over a hospital bill has spoken out over the “senseless, harassing, bullying” procedures used to chase down debts.

Once reasonably employed through an office job, she was made redundant. Four years ago, jobless and without health insurance, she incurred a $12,000 hospital bill for the birth of her youngest child.

That bill was hiked by 25 per cent in legal fees by the firm handling the case, which this week served a committal warrant on her for a $15,000 debt.

Meanwhile, the father of one of her children owes $37,000 in child support that was never paid.

“I don’t understand him being able to leave the Island knowing he owes all this money, but they want to lock me up over a bill I can’t pay,” said the woman, who asked not to be named to protect her privacy. “It’s not like I don’t want to pay; I can’t.”

In reality, few debtors are imprisoned: ten in total were incarcerated last year according to the Department of Corrections, and the jail terms are for contempt of court, not debt.

“I have seen increased sensitivity to the problem of debt among women in the courts — I need to acknowledge that,” Sheelagh Cooper, of the Coalition for the Protection of Children (CPC), told The Royal Gazette.

“But I continue to receive panicked phone calls from women who are being threatened with incarceration, either by collection agencies or bailiffs, and most of them don’t know that the law prevents that from happening, if they are able to put forward their case to demonstrate their position.”

The anonymous woman described how she was informed of the warrant for her arrest.

“They said I could get picked up any time,” she said. “I have to hide, basically. If they were to come to my house and do that in front of my children, they’d be devastated. It’s like they have no compassion at all.”

She was brought to court and ordered to pay $100 a month but fell behind as she struggled to find part-time housekeeping jobs.

“It was either food for my children or the hospital bill,” she said. “I chose food for my children. Most times I have just about enough food.

“I know I’m not the only one like this. More women should speak out because it’s not fair.”

She said the law firm that has been taking what payments she could manage had informed her that a committal warrant meant she would be incarcerated before being brought before a magistrate.

“A lot of people are going through the same thing. Friends of mine have been told they could be locked up. I get some help from my mother, but everyone’s struggling — when they can, they help me.

“People are leaving, going to England. Almost all of my friends have. They can’t make it here in Bermuda. I have hardly any friends left.”

Saying she felt harassed and bullied, she turned to the CPC for help.

Ms Cooper said they would help her to assemble her case and take it before a magistrate to get the payment plan reduced to something that she might maintain — perhaps as little as $25 a month.

“That seems realistic, but typically if they default, the warrant requires full payment,” Ms Cooper said. “Often, when the women in this position appear in court for the first time, they commit themselves to amounts they can’t pay, which means they can be held in contempt of court when they don’t pay.

“When they are subjected to these threats, it terrifies them. They need the right representation, and I don’t mean a lawyer. We help them describe their financial situation, which can be sufficient to allow them to reframe their plan to repay.

“It infuriates me that invariably these women are owed thousands in child support, in most cases double or triple the amount they owe. Yet it’s the woman that’s appearing before the courts. I have yet to see a woman threatened with prison who was not owed thousands in arrears.

“There needs to be a more aggressive approach to ensuring child support is paid — making sure they [the fathers] can’t relicense vehicles or don’t leave the country.

“I recognise that many of these fathers are unemployed and face the same challenges. It’s an economic problem greater than specific issues.”

The other root of the problem, she said, was women lacking health insurance.

“The majority of these cases involve medical bills that would not have arrived in this mailbox if they had jobs and insurance,” she added.

The issue has become politically charged: the One Bermuda Alliance, in the run-up to its 2012 election victory, pledged to “end the practice of sending people to jail for failing to pay debts”.

However, in June 2014, a bill for that same measure was brought to Parliament by Opposition MP Wayne Furbert — and opposed by OBA members over a long and heated debate.

Chief Justice Ian Kawaley subsequently called debt-related jailing “an exceptional occurrence”.

Nineteen people were incarcerated in 2013 and the OBA responded that greater numbers prevailed during the Progressive Labour Party administration: 635 from 2004 to 2012.

Ms Cooper said that the retort that no one was jailed for debt but rather contempt of court was “purely a technicality”.

While a debtor might find themselves only temporarily in police custody in an effort to get them to agree to a payment plan, she said the present system often amounted to “harassment” for exhausted women who were unsure of their rights.

“There’s a disbelief about this in the community — we tend to blame the victim,” Ms Cooper said.

“There is a significant level of misunderstanding about what these women are facing and what the consequences could be for them.”