The number of people going insolvent is still hitting record levels – and is expected to get worse.
The Government’s Insolvency Service today revealed 106,645 people were either declared bankrupt or took out an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) last year.
The figure is marginally below 2006, but dwarfs the 2005 mark of 67,584.
And Mark Sands, director of personal insolvency at accountants KPMG, said the problems of the credit crunch could see this figure leap to 130,000 by the end of the year.
However, while bankruptcies were on the up, one in six IVAs were rejected, because IVA providers and creditors could not agree terms.
An IVA is where people voluntarily enter a scheme which will allow them to pay back nominated creditors over a period of time.
During the final quarter of 2007 these were down by a fifth year-on-year to 10,300.
Mr Sands described 2007 as being a “pause for breath” in the number of people being declared insolvent, before figures start to climb again this year. |
