Personal insolvencies up by 14% in 2024

Personal insolvencies in England and Wales soared by 14% in 2024.

New figures from the Insolvency Service show that 117,947 individual insolvency cases were recorded last year.

That’s up from 103,434 in 2023.

In total, one in 415 adults in England and Wales became insolvent in 2024, compared with one in 467 in 2023.

During December alone, 10,050 people went financially insolvent. While that’s similar to the figure recorded in November, it’s 23% higher than it was a year earlier.

Number of DROs reaches record high

The increase was driven partly by the number of debt relief orders (DROs) rising by 36% to 43,249 -an all-time high.

This may be partly down to the removal of a £90 admin fee last April, while the debt limit for DROs was increased from £30,000 to £50,000 in June.

More than half of individual insolvencies were IVAs

Individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs) accounted for more than half (57%) of individual insolvencies last year.

Meanwhile, DROs made up 37% of the total, while 6% were bankruptcies.

Struggling households urged to seek advice

Tim Cooper, president of insolvency and restructuring trade body R3, believes 2025 will be “another hard year for household finances”, due to factors such as the energy price cap going up this month and several retailers planning price hikes to cover increased costs.

“My message to anyone who is worried about money is to seek advice as soon as possible,” he said.

“We’ve seen countless examples of people who have come for advice too late and who could have achieved a different - more positive - outcome if they had reached out sooner.”