Insolvency figures to hit a record

The number of people declared insolvent in England and Wales hit a new record high

Government figures are expected to show that the number of people declared insolvent in England and Wales hit a new high during the third quarter.

Insolvency practitioner Tenon Recovery expects around 35,000 people to have been made insolvent during the three months to the end of June, eclipsing the previous quarter's record of just over 33,000.

The group predicts the level of personal insolvencies will continue to rise during the final part of the year to a record 130,000 for the whole of 2009, compared with 106,544 in 2008.

Mark Sands, national head of bankruptcy at Tenon Recovery, said: "We expect to see official confirmation of a record quarter of personal insolvencies."

Louise Brittain, partner in Deloitte's Contentious Insolvency Group, said: "We predict that for the second successive quarter the number of people filing for personal insolvency in Q3 will exceed the 30,000 mark.

"This figure is staggering, and unfortunately the end is not in sight. I fully expect that by the year end, 2009 will have broken all personal insolvency records, with the total number of petitions likely to exceed the 130,000 mark."

The number of people taking out one of the Government's new Debt Relief Orders (DRO) is expected to have soared from just under 2,000 during the second quarter of the year to 4,500 during the three months to the end of September, according to Tenon Recovery.

The orders, which were only introduced on April 6 this year, offer an alternative to bankruptcy for people with debts of less than £15,000, assets of less than £300 and less than £50 surplus income a month.

But initial take-up of DROs was slow due to the orders taking longer to process than was anticipated, creating a backlog, which is now expected to have worked its way through the system.

The increase in DRO is expected to have led to a slight fall in the number of people going bankrupt, with figures for the third quarter expected to total 18,500, down from 18,870 during the second quarter.