FEWER people are going bankrupt in Scotland, new statistics show.
The number of personal insolvencies were down 14.7% to 3411 in the second quarter of the 2013-14 financial year, compared with the first quarter. That is 16.1% lower than the same period in the previous financial year, reinforcing a long-term decline since 2008-09.
Bankruptcies awarded and protected trust deeds registered both decreased, according to figures released by Accountant in Bankruptcy (AiB).
There were 1170 debt payment programmes approved under the Scottish Government's Debt Arrangement Scheme (DAS), which allows people struggling with debt to pay it back over a longer period.
The figure is down 2.5% on the previous quarter but up 5.4% on the same quarter of the previous year. The number of approved debt payment programmes has increased almost four-fold in four years. A total of £7.2 million was repaid through DAS during this quarter.
Energy, Enterprise and Tourism Minister Fergus Ewing welcomed the reduction in personal insolvencies.
"The Scottish Government and AiB have carried out a significant amount of work on policy and legislative reform this year with the aim of creating a financial health service for Scotland," he said.
"Following our recent efforts to raise awareness of the DAS scheme and its benefits, there has been an increase in individuals opting for the Debt Arrangement Scheme, with £7.2 million having been repaid through DAS this quarter."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article