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Record numbers petition for their own bankruptcy
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A record number of people in England and Wales asked to go bankrupt during 2007, the latest official Government figures have shown...
53,114 people petitioned to bankrupt themselves after being unable to keep up with their debts, as opposed to having their creditors call for them to go bankrupt, according to the latest statistics available from the Ministry of Justice.
The figure was 1% higher than the number of people who asked to go bankrupt in 2006, but it was a 44% jump on the total for 2005 and nearly double 2004's level.
There was a dip in bankruptcy petitions from debtors during the final quarter of 2007, just 11,703 people asked to go bankrupt in the three months, the lowest level since 2005 and 10% down on the same period of 2006.
The number of creditors who petitioned for people to be made bankrupt fell during the final quarter to 4,614, 11% fewer than during the last three months of 2006 and a level last seen in 2004.
In 2007 there were 20,156 creditor bankruptcy petitions lodged with courts in England and Wales, nearly three-quarters of people asking to go bankrupt were initiating the process themselves.
The Insolvency Service recently releasesd data showing that the number of people actually declared insolvent fell for the first time in nine years during 2007.
The dip in the number of people petitioning for bankruptcy during the final quarter is likely to represent the calm before the storm, bankruptcy petitions are expected to begin climbing again this year.
Wales saw the biggest jump in the number of people declaring themselves bankrupt, with the figure rising by 8% during 2007, followed by the North West, where it rose by 6%. There was a 9% drop in bankruptcy petitions from debtors in the South West during 2007 compared with 2006.
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