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Topic starter
20/04/2011 10:46 am
The Accountant in Bankruptcy has released the statistics on the number of personal insolvencies during the first quarter of 2011.
There were 1575 protected trust deeds recorded during January, February and March.
This represents a drop of 25% compared to the previous quarter and a drop of 23% compared to the same period last year.
There were 2687 personal bankruptcies.
This represents an 8% increase compared to the last quarter but a 15% decrease compared to the same quarter last year.
The overall level of insolvencies was down compared to the last quarter by 7%.
Much of the drop in the number of protected trust deeds was compensated for by an increase in the number of persons using the new Certificate for Sequestration route to bankruptcy.
The Accountant in Bankruptcy state that they do not conclude that these two changes are necessarily connected. However some observers may conclude that the general "squeeze" on personal finances is leaving fewer people with sufficient disposable income to be able to fund a protected trust deed. More people may also be becoming aware of the alternative offered by the Debt Arrangement Scheme.
478 people started debt payment programmes under the DAS Debt Arrangement Scheme. This is a 9% increase on the previous quarter and a 15% increase on the same period last year.
Qualified Debt Adviser & Forum Administrator - Ask me anything about Trust Deeds 
20/04/2011 6:01 pm
It would be interesting to see what percentage of those statistics are people having to repeat the whole process. I remember when I signed my trust deed they told me that they had clients who had to come back again. I can also remember sitting there thinking 'why would anyone want to put themselves through this more than once?'
Nothing left to discharge - everything's done and dusted!
Topic starter
20/04/2011 6:21 pm
Hi gillian.
That's a really interesting point.
I'd be interested to hear from Mark, Julie or Kevin how often they meet with clients or possible clients that have been in a trust deed previously.
From the experience of speaking with the people that contact us, I think it's probably a very small percentage of people that are currently in a trust deed that isn't their first one.
One thing to bear in mind is that the need for debt solution measures most often results (in some way) from an unexpected change in circumstances. The list of possibilities is endless but separation, redundancy or ill-health are examples of things that are quite often involved in some way or another.
It can be the case that a level of debt that was previously manageable just isn't at some point after such a change.
Sadly some people are bound to be affected in this way more than once I suppose.
Qualified Debt Adviser & Forum Administrator - Ask me anything about Trust Deeds
22/04/2011 9:25 pm
You are quite right trust deed assistant, it is a small percentage, though you do get them occasionally.
In terms of reasons for becoming insolvent, often there has been a period of unemployment, during which the debts have built up, or a relationship split meaning a lower income and higher outgoings. It is also very common that a large proportion of the debts have accrued in servicing other debts - "robbing peter to pay paul" - consolidation rarely works it seems.
Scottish Debt Solutions Expert - Ask me for help setting up a Scottish Trust Deed or Debt Arrangement Scheme plan.
22/04/2011 10:20 pm
My worry is that usually the only line of credit people can get in the period after a trust deed is to a lender with a painful apr. It must be so easy given a card from those lenders to splurge, after have had 3 years of such restriction. Granted they have limits of a few hundred pounds but once they build up to a couple of thousand, ouch! I'm hoping I'll be able to manage to avoid the need for a credit card for a long time.
Nothing left to discharge - everything's done and dusted!
