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More people in the UK are being bankrupted than ever before, latest official statistics reveal. And the worst may be yet to come.
With the personal toll of the recession mounting there was more bad news for workers and owner managers as official figures also showed a 35% increase in companies going bust as the lending banks get tough.
The Government's Insolvency Service today reported 33,073 personal insolvencies between April and June, the fourth consecutive quarterly increase. That is a 27% year-on-year increase.
In the second quarter 18,870 individuals were made bankrupt, 12,225 entered creditor protection under an individual voluntary arrangement, and 1978 were the subject of debt-relief orders, the new bankruptcy protection for people with smaller borrowings.
PricewaterhouseCoopers personal insolvency partner Pat Boyden said: “This quarter's record numbers of total insolvencies is something that cannot be ignored. The experience of the Nineties recession shows that the peak of insolvencies did not occur until two years after the worst of the slump had passed.
“The increasing proportion of self-employed individuals going bankrupt is a trend that is likely to continue over the next two years.”
The number of businesses going bust in the same quarter increased to 6584 across England and Wales.
Richard Fleming, head of restructuring at accountant KPMG, said the rise in business bankruptcies has come as the banks take a harder stance.
“The predicted lull during the July holiday season just hasn't materialised as we've seen a swathe of insolvency appointments being made across all sectors,” he said. “We see this trend continuing well into August and probably for the second half of the year.
“We're seeing lenders are acting with more certainty as they appear to be taking more decisive action on individual cases.
“They are beginning to crystallise their losses quicker, and move on from them in a bid to begin to balance their books.”
Reader views (2)
How much longer is England going to put up with this ?
Its ridiculous that the banks messed up, we had to bail them out and now they won't even return any kind of favour by lending us money or giving a mortgage.
I say we all start stashing our cash under the matress again!
- Josh, London
Quote: “We're seeing lenders are acting with more certainty as they appear to be taking more decisive action on individual cases.
This means; they are not lending any money; but saving the money for Bonuses earned on money saved, by not lending any money at all.
Quote: “The increasing proportion of self-employed individuals going bankrupt is a trend that is likely to continue over the next two years.
This means that everyone else working will go skint; except the bankers. Who are earning their bonuses paid for by taxpayers; that will soon not be taxpayers at all?
Quote: They are beginning to crystallise their losses quicker, and move on from them in a bid to begin to balance their books.
This means they are throwing people down the drains to crystallise them into waste, in order to say we earned our bonuses by getting rid of the unemployed permanently.
Who said Nationalised Industries are lame ducks?
- Mickinlondon, london.
