Terry Balfour, director of IVA.com believes that hard-pressed households – many of whom are still clearing plastic debt from Christmas 2006 – will buckle under the onslaught of bills timed to arrive this week.
He said: “January is the cruellest month when it comes to bills, this explains why we are experiencing such a surge in queries for IVAs.
“And with similar reports filtering from the industry about the number of phone calls/emails about debt advice, we predict it will outstrip 2007’s total of 110,000 insolvencies, when £1.3bn was written off in bad debts as a result of individual voluntary arrangements."
The average IVA debtor in 2007 owed just over £50,000, but Balfour said that this figure could be significantly higher as 2008 unwinds
