Mortgage Insolvencies On The Rise – Get Advice Before It's Too Late

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The number of people who are becoming insolvent is rising every day during this recession – if you are in serious financial problems, you need to get some professional advice right away.

According to the Office of National Statistics, there were 35,242 individual insolvencies in England and Wales in the third quarter of 2009. This was an increase of 28.2% on the same period a year ago. People are finding debts and arrears are too much and are unable to avoid repossession and penury.

This latest statistic was made up of 18,347 bankruptcies, up 6.4%, and 12,390 Individual Voluntary Arrangements, which were up 20.9% on the last quarter. There were also 4,505 Debt Relief Orders, a new individual insolvency procedure similar to IVAs, which came into force in April 2009.

These numbers should be a wake up call to anyone who has not paid their mortgage for a few months, who has been avoiding those red letters from the credit card companies and has been turning off their phone to ignore the calls from the personal loan firms. Putting your head in the sand will only lead to further financial problems.

The ONS says 85% of bankruptcies were made on the petition of the debtor themselves, a number that has risen since 2008. People have become so desperate they literally have nowhere to turn and have voluntary given up.

Bankruptcy is terrible. It means repossession, it means debt repayment for years and years and it means you can't get hold of credit for a long time. For some there is no alternative, but for plenty of those 35,242 people who fell into insolvency may have found alternative solutions with the help of a financial professional. They may have helped them rearrange their debts, found a better way of handling their income or found alternative 'good' debts that could have helped them repair their finances.

There is a lot a financial professional can do for the indebted, but the only way they can find out is by pulling their head out of the sand and pick up the phone.

SOURCE: ONS, 06/11/09

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