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Friday, 05 February 2010
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2009 Insolvency figures hide true level of unmanageable debt.

Friday, 05 February 2010

As the number of personal insolvencies reaches record levels, with consumers battling against unemployment and credit problems, I say the total number of insolvencies for last year in the UK should have been nearer the million mark.

Figures released by the Insolvency Service show that the number of individuals in England and Wales who went bankrupt or proposed an Individual Voluntary Arrangement, (IVA) during 2009 reached 134,142, a massive increase of 27,598, this equates to a rise of 25.9%. This is the highest number of insolvencies since the Service started collating records back in 1960. See insolvency figures since records began.

However, research by R3 has revealed that around 700,000 ‘hidden debtors’, are in long term debt management plans some of whom have no hope of ever paying their debts back in their lifetime and  are technically insolvent. They are instead, languishing in long term informal repayment programmes with no debt, or for many, no interest relief.

I think this is just the tip of the iceberg as too many people have debts that they have no realistic hope of repaying. Some try to offer an IVA to their creditors only for it to be rejected by a lender. There is also the issue of the cost for a person to go bankrupt, currently £510 or £360 if on certain benefits. I have many clients that just cannot afford to go bankrupt, are no longer paying their lenders, and the debt, pressure and stress is building everyday.

Also included in the figures are Debt Relief Orders, (DROs), which were introduced by the Government in April 2009. A DRO is designed to allow those with debts of less than £15,000 and minimal assets to write off their debts without entering into a full blown bankruptcy or having to go to Court. These are proving to only help a selected few and are totally ineffective in helping consumers because of the ridiculous and unreasonable qualifying procedure; still they work for some as 11,831 have been issued since their inception.

Insolvency involves an individual either going or being made bankrupt or successfully proposing an IVA, which is seen as a less stringent form of insolvency. An IVA allows a borrower to enter into a repayment programme, usually for 5 years, and interest and charges are frozen with the remaining debt written off upon completion of the arrangement.

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