Total Individual Voluntary Arrangements increase for a sixth consecutive quarter: Q4 Insolvency Stats
The latest Insolvency Statistics – October – December 2016 (Q4 2016) published by the Insolvency Service show Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs) increased for the sixth successive quarter. There were a total of 49,745 IVAs in 2016, although it fell short of the record 52,190 we saw in 2014.
In England and Wales the number of people becoming insolvent in Q4 2016 was 22,852, a 4.3% decrease on the previous quarter, but 9.8% higher than the same quarter of 2015.
This was compromised of 3,786 Bankruptcies, 6,243 Debt relief Orders (DROs) and 12,823 IVAs. The increase in 2016s individual insolvencies was mainly due to the increase in IVAs, which increased 23.2% when compared with 2015. Although Q4 saw a decrease in IVAs of 5.1% on Q3, there was a 21.7% rise on the same quarter last year.
DROs were down 3.8% on Q3, and down 4% compared with the same quarter last year. Overall there was an 8.4% increase on 2015 as a whole, with 26,196 DROs in 2016.
Bankruptcies continue to fall with a 2.1% decrease on the previous quarter and a slight rise of 0.1% on the same quarter last year. In total 2016 saw 14,989 bankruptcies, a fall of 5.4% compared with 2015 – a seventh consecutive decrease.
In 2016 one in 506 adults became insolvent.
“It’s too early for increased consumer credit lending to be impacting on the numbers of people seeking insolvency solutions. The rise is down to easier accessibility for all personal insolvency procedures, either because of changes in the way they work or, as in the case of the IVA, because access is available at lower levels of debt and income”.
