Personal insolvencies ‘set to rise’

The number of personal insolvencies looks set to exceed 30,000 once more as an increasing amount of people on low incomes are declaring themselves bankrupt, it has been suggested.

This may be because more are opting for debt relief orders (DROs), which are a cheaper form of bankruptcy, that was introduced in April, the Guardian reports.

Alec Pillmoor of accountancy firm Baker Tilly was quoted by the paper as saying that the number of DROs is expected to have risen to approximately 4,000 as more people learn about them.

And Louise Brittain of Deloitte stated that it is these orders that are likely to push the insolvency figure higher.

“I fully expect that by the year end, 2009 will have broken all personal insolvency records,” she remarked.

Earlier this month, the British Retail Consortium revealed that 15 per cent of people are concerned about debt, a rise of five year-on-year percentage points.