Tuesday 26th of May 2009
The actual number of people in the UK who are struggling with major debt problems could be much higher than government figures suggest, a study has indicated.
According to R3, the trade body for insolvency practitioners, many Britons are being declared ‘technically insolvent’ by their banks.
Statistics from the Insolvency Service showed that there were nearly 30,000 insolvencies in the first three months of 2009, with KPMG predicting that over 150,000 people will be affected by the end of the year.
However, R3 has said that the problem extends much further, with 450 per cent more people affected than the government calculates.
This is because of the use of debt management programmes, which do not appear in the Insolvency Service figures.
With these informal agreements taken into account, the firm estimated that one million people are facing severe debt worries.
Those who find themselves in such situations may wish to seek IVA advice online, as a range of options are available for dealing with outstanding debt.
