New data shows significant rise in personal insolvency figures

29 Jul 2016

The number of individuals being declared insolvent in England and Wales rose to 22,503 during the second quarter of this year, new figures from the Insolvency Service show.

This constitutes a 6.9% rise when compared to the first quarter of 2016, and a 22.4% rise on the second quarter of 2015.

In Scotland, individual insolvencies rose by 49.8% during the second quarter of 2016, with a total of 2,405 people becoming insolvent.

Meanwhile, figures for Northern Ireland show that there were 755 individual insolvencies in the second quarter of this year, which represents a rise of 8.5% on the same quarter in 2015.

The rise in personal insolvencies in England and Wales can be attributed to an increase in Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs): there were 12,225 IVAs in the second quarter of 2016 - 15.4% higher compared to the first quarter.

However, the data also revealed that the number of traditional bankruptcies has fallen in England and Wales: during the second quarter of 2016, the number of bankruptcies fell by 5.4% compared to the previous quarter.