Bankruptcy simply isn’t an option for thousands of British women
Despite the fact that it now being considered as one of the major stress related worries among women in the UK today, a new report issued by the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) says that more than half of the women they had advised to go bankrupt had refused to do so.
With KPMG predicting that as many as 150,000 Brits will either go bankrupt or opt for Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs) in 2007, UK creditors may be forgiven for lauding the actions of those women in the UK who refuse to take this drastic step. However, with average debts (of those recommended to go bankrupt by CCCS) of £30,293 and average salaries at the time they sought the help of £10,000 the CCCS sees the inability of British women to admit they have a debt problem, and to select bankruptcy as one of the options to rectify this, as being one of the biggest stresses being placed on women in the UK today.
Although more than three-quarters of the British women the CCCS had advised to go bankrupt were single, the CCCS also noted an alarming growing trend of older women who had suddenly found themselves in financial difficulty following a break-up in their relationship or job loss seeking debt counselling help. In both cases, the CCCS says that the primary reason why British women refuse to go bankrupt is because they’re afraid of the shame they feel it’ll bring upon them.
Commenting on both the growing trend of women in the UK who refuse to go bankruptcy out of the shame-fear factor and the growing number of older women in the UK seeking debt counselling, Malcolm Hurlston, the founder and Chairman of CCCS, said:
“More than half the people advised to go for bankruptcy fail to go through with the process, missing the best solution to their debt problems. Stigma is the main reason why over a third of them – 34% - did not proceed.
Half of the clients recommended for bankruptcy claimed that their accumulated debts were the result of a negative income shock such as divorce, separation, illness or job loss, rather than overspending”.
In the meantime, the CCCS also said that 18 percent of those who they had advised to go bankrupt could not done so even if they had wanted to because they were so badly off they couldn’t even afford the £475 in administration fees and court costs.
A massive 61 percent of the thousands of Brits the CCCS had advised to go bankrupt in the last year were women.
Tom Smith
25th January 2007
More Information:
- General Loan Advice For Managing Debt
Debt is a really easy thing to get stuck in. Even if you are not extravagant monthly costs can spiral out of control, especially if you take your eye off the ball. So what can you do to avoid getting too far into debt and if you are there already how can you get out of it?
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It is easy for debt to get out of control. Student loans, losing your job, becoming ill or any number of other unforeseen events can easily cause debts to mount up.
