Insolvencies hit record as debt crisis deepens

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

A record number of people went insolvent during the summer in an indication that the UK debt crisis is worsening, new figures showed today.

Statistics from the Government's Insolvency Service revealed that a total of 27,644 people went bankrupt or took out an individual voluntary arrangement between July and September.

Broken down, the figures show 15,416 people went bankrupt while 12,228 people opted for an IVA.

The combined figure was an increase on the 26,021 people who went insolvent in the previous quarter.

The combined figure represents a jump of 55.4% on the same period a year ago.

IVAs saw the largest leap, up almost 10% on the previous quarter and 118% on the corresponding quarter for 2005.

Bankruptcy figures were up 2.7% on the last quarter and almost 27% on the previous year.

The narrowing gap between bankruptcy and IVA figures is likely to raise concern that too many people are being pushed into IVAs as a result of aggressive advertising by debt management companies.

Today's announcement will also reinforce predictions that the number of people going insolvent in 2006 will exceed the 100,000 mark for the first time.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in