A record number of people in England and Wales applied to become bankrupt during the 12 months to the end of June, according to official figures published on Friday.

The number of people asking to be made bankrupt has soared in the past three years as levels of domestic debt have risen sharply and people have begun to attach “less stigma” to becoming bankrupt, said personal insolvency advisers.



Bankruptcy petitions from debtors have increased five fold since they were running at about 10,000 a year during the mid to late 1990s. This compares with more 54,500 people who petitioned to become bankrupt during the past 12 months, according to the Ministry of Justice.

It reported that debtor petitions in the latest quarter were 5 per cent higher than in the same period last year, but 11 per cent lower than in the previous three months.

This was in line with separate figures published last week by the Insolvency Service, which reported an 8.1 per cent decline in the number of people declaring themselves insolvent compared with the first three months of this year.

There was also better news for banks on other fronts. According to the Ministry of Justice, the number of company winding-up petitions fell 5 per cent compared with the second quarter of last year, while bankruptcy petitions from creditors declined 4 per cent over the same period.

Mark Sands, director of personal insolvency at KPMG, warned that the recent declines were only a temporary respite. He said the state’s family finances were expected to worsen as the “impact of recent interest rate rises kicked in” and as fixed-interest periods for more than 1m mortgage loans ran out over the next 18 months.

According to KPMG, the average debt of people who become bankrupt is £46,587, and £48,800 for those pursuing individual voluntary arrangements.

Mr Sands said: “Despite the [overall] national fall in bankruptcy numbers, we can’t take comfort in this trend, which we see as being only a temporary respite from long-term increases to record levels.

“With average debt levels as high as this, five increases in interest rates in the last year, and a further rise on the cards, the pressure on the over-indebted continues to increase. It is unsurprising that we are seeing more and more people choosing personal insolvency as the solution to their problems.”

According to the Ministry of Justice, north-east England saw the biggest rise in the number of people seeking to make themselves bankrupt, with a 19 per cent increase in petitions during the second quarter of the year compared with the same period in 2006. This was followed by the north-west at 18 per cent and London at 17 per cent.

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