Awareness ‘boosts trend towards IVAs’

A greater degree of awareness among consumers has helped to boost the number of people entering an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA)
in the UK over recent years, it has been suggested.

Stephen Rose, director of the Debt Advice Bureau, insists that while they can be no single cause behind the increasing uptake of IVAs, consumer awareness of the option has grown over the past few years.

And Mr Rose suggests that IVAs are an attractive way to clear debt for many people, who view them as a more appropriate solution than bankruptcy.

“Certainly one of the redeeming features of an IVA for many people is that it isn’t bankruptcy,” he said.

“You could consider it a trade-off: you’re in it for conceivably longer…but on the flip side, you retain greater autonomy over your life.”

Accountancy firm KPMG forecast earlier this year that 2007 would see more than 130,000 British credit consumers declared insolvent.