Interesting stats, hadn't realised just how many debtors petition for their own bankruptcy. As Melanie suggests must be creditors trying to push DPM's or debts just being unmanagable in an IVA with the variations being put forward by TIX and the likes.
And remember this is all prior to the credit crunch.
Annually, total individual insolvencies in 2007 (at 106,645) were 0.6% less than in 2006 (107,288). Bankruptcy orders (at 64,480) were 2.4% higher than in 2006 (62,956), while IVAs (at 42,165) were 4.9% lower than in 2006 (44,332). Prior to this, year-on-year, total individual insolvencies demonstrated an increasing trend from 1997 to 2006, with particularly steep increases towards the end of this period. On a quarterly basis, Q4 2007 saw the fourth consecutive decrease in both bankruptcies and IVAs since the levels reached in the fourth quarter of 2006.
For bankruptcy orders there has been a pronounced shift towards debtor’s petition bankruptcies and away from creditor’s petitions in recent years. By the fourth quarter of 2007, 83% were made on the petition of the debtor. On an annual basis, this figure has risen consistently from 53% in 1998 to 84% in 2007.