Personal Insolvencies Rise Again

The first quarter of 2007 saw 30,075 people go bust, an increase in personal insolvencies of 23.9% on the same period one year ago, according to figures released today by the Insolvency Service. Whilst bankruptcies rose 10% to 16,842, Individual Voluntary Arrangements accelerated by 47.6% over the past 12 months to 13,233.

Commenting on the figures, Damon Gibbons - Chair of Debt on our Doorstep - said:

"That over 30,000 households in a single three month period have had to resort to extreme measures and declare themselves insolvent reflects a severe indebtedness problem in this country. We should remember that every county court judgment, insolvency, and respossession increases the market for high cost credit as people are excluded from mainstream financial services. The challenge for Government is to ensure that people going insolvent are given a way back into the financial services mainstream as soon as possible. In that respect, the growth of IVA's as opposed to full bankruptcy is perhaps the only good news in these figures."