Number of personal insolvencies drops slightly
Published On 6 November 2007
The number of people declaring themselves bankrupt or seeking an IVA dropped over the last quarter, new figures show.Date released by the Insolvency Service indicated that there were a total of 26,072 individual insolvencies in England and Wales in the third quarter of 2007. This represented a decrease of three per cent on the previous quarter and a drop of five per cent on the same period in 2006.
These insolvencies were made up of 15,833 bankruptcies (a decrease of 2.1 per cent on the previous quarter) and 10,239 IVAs (a drop of 14.3 per cent on the corresponding period last year).
Despite the falls, Steve Treharne, head of personal insolvency at KPMG, said that the debt problems in the UK remained significant.
"Anyone who takes comfort in this slight fall is in for a rude awakening. These figures mask the true scale of Britain's consumers continuing inability to manage their debt," he explained.
"The reality is that although the number of personal insolvencies has dropped this quarter, almost everything else indicates that things are going to get much worse before they get better."
"The effects of rising interest rates, council tax and other household bills threaten to push those already struggling with debt over the edge."
