FOI230 - Average debt levels by vintage only
Updated 27 October 2021
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Your ref: FOI20/21-230
Date: 22 April 2021
Dear
Re: Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request
Thank you for your email of 26 March in which you requested from the Insolvency Service: “I have been looking into average debt levels for personal bankruptcies and found some research published by yourselves “Median Estimated Debt by Age Band in Bankruptcies and Debt Relief Orders”, authored by Michael McDaid. The above mentioned report covers the 2010-2019 vintages and I’m wondering if there is any publicly available research that includes older vintages (as far back as 2000 ideally)? We are interested in average debt levels by vintage only, not necessarily the split by debtor age band. If there are any existing research report(s) you can point us to we would be extremely grateful”.
Your request has been dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).
I can confirm the agency holds the information that you have requested, as presented in Table 1 below. Table 1 is also attached at Annex A in ODS format to meet accessibility requirements.
Note that figures should be treated as estimates since they are extracted from a live database and are subject to change. For this reason, the previous figures for 2010 to 2019 (as published in the tables you referenced) have been recalculated using the latest data (as at 31 March 2021).
Since the figures are estimates, annual median bankruptcy debt has been rounded to the nearest £1,000 and annual median Debt Relief Order (DRO) debt has been rounded to the nearest £500. DROs were introduced in 2009 and therefore there are no data held prior to this year. Estimated debt has only been calculated for approved DROs. DROs that were declined or approved and then later revoked have been excluded.
Table 1: Median Estimated Bankruptcy and Debt Relief Order Debt, England and Wales, 2000 to 2020
Median Debt
| Year (of order or petition) | Bankruptcies | Debt Relief Orders |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | £23,000 | - |
| 2001 | £23,000 | - |
| 2002 | £23,000 | - |
| 2003 | £23,000 | - |
| 2004 | £25,000 | - |
| 2005 | £27,000 | - |
| 2006 | £28,000 | - |
| 2007 | £28,000 | - |
| 2008 | £31,000 | - |
| 2009 | £38,000 | £9,000 |
| 2010 | £42,000 | £8,500 |
| 2011 | £52,000 | £8,500 |
| 2012 | £55,000 | £8,000 |
| 2013 | £55,000 | £8,500 |
| 2014 | £50,000 | £8,500 |
| 2015 | £46,000 | £9,000 |
| 2016 | £43,000 | £10,500 |
| 2017 | £41,000 | £10,500 |
| 2018 | £39,000 | £11,000 |
| 2019 | £38,000 | £11,000 |
| 2020 | £34,000 | £11,500 |
Source: Insolvency Service
Under section 16 of the Act (Advice and Assistance) you may find it useful to note:
Further information on annual (and quarterly) numbers of bankruptcy and DROs can be found in our quarterly individual insolvency statistics. The latest release (for Q4 2020) can be found here. An update to these statistics (to include Q1 2021) will be published on Friday 30th April.
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Information Rights Team The Insolvency Service
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