With recently published figures suggesting that a million people in Britain could be on the verge of bankruptcy, a leading local insolvency practitioner has reported a 200 per cent increase in enquiries regarding debt problems. John Cullen, senior partner at Cardiff based Harris Lipman has seen the increase over the past six months. He comments: "The number of people coming to us with debt problems has tripled in the past year. And it is not just at the less wealthy side of society. The average salary of people we see is nearly £25,000 a year. We have recently seen a client who had run up debts of £300,000 on ten credit cards." Recent figures show that while one in five adults - or eight million - have unsecured debt of more than £10,000* 1.7 million of these people often struggle to meet their debt payments. These problems resulted in 23,351 personal insolvency filings in the first quarter of this year in England and Wales. This figure is up 13% on the previous quarter and a 73% increase from a year earlier. With Bank of England figures showing that the amount of personal debt in Britain has broken through the £1 trillion mark, John is warning anyone who is concerned they may be heading into financial difficulty that action should be taken sooner rather than later. John continues: “Taking action does not necessarily mean becoming bankrupt. An alternative to filing for bankruptcy is to apply for an Individual Voluntary Arrangement. While IVA’s can be more complex to apply for, they do hold much less of a stigma than bankruptcy and are a favourable option in the long term. If you own assets, IVAs allow you the breathing space to pay back your debts, which many people feel is a more honourable route.” If you feel you need advice regarding bankruptcy, always contact a professional licensed insolvency practitioner who is a member of one of the main bodies of accountants or lawyers. Avoid unlicensed insolvency advisers. For more information please contact Harris Lipman on 029 2049 5444 or visit www.harrislipman.co.uk *YouGov for debt consultancy Thomas Charles
Content by: Harris Lipman Chartered Accountants
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