Are we in the UK drowning in Debt? According to the insurer AXA, some 11.6 million people (25 per cent of the adult population) are said to be struggling financially with a significant number, around 1.3 million people, admitting their finances are entirely out of control.

AXA reported that mounting credit card bills are now putting just close to 3.8 million people under intense financial pressure and a further one million of UK borrowers are now struggling to keep up their repayments.

500,000 people have been threatened with the bailiffs or repossession and consumer county court judgements (CCJs) has reached their highest level since the start of 2007′s third quarter.

The public interest Company that manages the register of judgements on behalf of the Lord Chancellor has reported that within England and Wales County Court Judgements rose by 17.4 per cent year on year to 223,519, its highest level since the beginning of 2007 and from the second quarter of 2008 this is a 25 per cent increase.

Individuals entering into insolvency within the borders of England and Wales are on the up by nearly 9 per cent or just over twenty seven thousand in the 3rd part of 2008 compared with the previous quarter.

17,341 people went bankrupt, which has shot up 12.1 per cent from 15,463 in the second quarter of the year, and 9,746 individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs), which is up 3.3 per cent from the three months before.

The treacherous economic conditions for people and business has created a rise in corporate and personal insolvency and the worsening economy is making the prospect of a further rise in insolvency further predictable through 2009.

Unfortunately the planned Simplified Individual Voluntary Arrangement SIVA, due out next year has been abandoned by the Insolvency Service

A simplified version of the IVA, for consumers with debts up to 75,000 and that would only require approval by a simple majority of creditors rather than the 75 per cent majority under normal IVAs, was due to be introduced in April 2009.

UK Home Owners unable to consolidate their debts using equity and are not wishing to go bankrupt have for the time being limited options between an IVA and a Debt Management Program.