A person is declared bankrupt or insolvent every 4.35 minutes

Debt is an ever present problem and with the recession really biting now 1 person is declared bankrupt or insolvent every 4.35 minutes.

According to the Insolvency Service the number of individual insolvencies in the first quarter 2009 was up 19% on the same first period in 2008.

The number of mortgages in arrears is also rising but according to YouGov’s quarterly ‘DebtTracker’ undertaken in Feb 09, only 37% of those struggling with bills or credit commitments had sought debt advice in the previous 6 months.

According to the Consumer Credit Counselling Service, fewer people are now in a position to repay their debts – in 2007 only 35% of clients were able to commit to a Debt Management Plan, in 2007 this was 42%.

All this is leading to massive debt problems and the Citizens Advice Bureau are dealing with an average of 7,241 new debt cases every working day.

These statistics have been pulled together by CreditAction and quite clearly paint a pretty bleak picture.

Whilst debt problems are increasing, action can be taken to manage them.

Critically though debt problems don’t go away by themselves and the sooner action is taken the more chance they can be sorted before you face bankruptcy.

You may find it helpful to check out the MoneyHighStreet articles on Debt Management and how to Save money without losing out.