INDIVIDUAL INSOLVENCIES

There were 27,087 individual insolvencies in England and Wales in the third quarter of 2008 on a seasonally adjusted basis. This was an increase of 8.8% on the previous quarter and an increase of 4.6% on the same period a year ago. 

This was made up of 17,341 bankruptcies (which were up 12.1% on the previous quarter and 9.5% on the corresponding quarter of the previous year), and 9,746 Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs), (which were up 3.3% on the previous quarter but down 3.1% on the corresponding quarter of the previous year).

For bankruptcy orders there has been a pronounced shift towards debtor’s petition bankruptcies and away from creditor’s petitions in recent years.  In the third quarter of 2008, 83.4% were made on the petition of the debtor, a similar level to that seen for 2006 and 2007 as a whole.

The percentage of bankruptcy orders involving trading debts (self-employed bankruptcies) has fallen from 70% in 1990 (the earliest for which reliable figures exist) to 11.2% in the second quarter of 2008 (third quarter 2008 figures for trading-related bankruptcies are not yet available). It should be noted, however, that figures for 2007 onwards are based on a revised classification and are not entirely consistent with earlier years figures. 

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Tags: Bankruptcy, individual voluntary arrangement, IVA

This entry was posted on Friday, November 7th, 2008 at 11:14 am and is filed under Bankruptcy, IVA, Latest Insolvency Figures, Recession. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.