Illinois has replied to Cornerstone Support’s request for more details on sending the notice to the state:
“With regard to Executive Order 10's remote work notice and IDFPR's guidance, if an individual agent is working remotely and the brick and mortar location is not changing, the collection agency should send an e-mail with the employee name and location to the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. The subject line should list "Collection Agency - Remote Work COVID". The collection agency will need to e-mail the agency name and 017 license number followed by the list of collectors and their addresses where they are working remotely.”
Illinois Issues a Provisional Statement for Collection from Home
On March 9, 2020, Governor JB Pritzker declared all the counties in the State of Illinois a disaster area as a result of COVID-19. On March 20, 2020, the Governor issued an executive order requiring all non-essential businesses and operations to cease all activities within the state, except for certain identified minimum basic operations. On March 30, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation issued a statement to provide guidance to collection agencies about working from home due to the Covid-19 crisis.
The March 30 document stated that even though properly licensed debt collection agencies were not considered essential services, they could be conditionally permitted to work from home. “[D]ebt collection agencies seeking to work at a location other than their address of record, including remotely, are hereby directed to provide the Department notice within 14 days of any address changes pursuant to 225 ILCS 425/2.5(2).”
The document went on to encourage “debt collection agencies and debt buyers to work with consumers to modify payment schedules or suspend all collection activity for a period of no less than 60 days.” Cornerstone has reached out to the administrative persons within the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation to provide specific instructions on what should be included in the notice.
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