TDX Group

IVA applications continue to rise yet debtors paying less back

Press release: 6 November 2009 

TDX Group, the leading provider of analytics-based debt management products and services, reports a rise of almost 40% in the volume of IVA applications from January to September this year.

TDX Group sees over 80% of all IVA applications in England and Wales, and its data shows that as of the end of September, 35,307 people have successfully applied for an IVA in 2009, with total unsecured debt worth over £1.8 billion.

Alongside the increase in the number of IVAs, applicants are proposing to pay less back now than a year ago.  In Q3 2008 the average proposed monthly contribution was £345.43 compared to £316.19 in Q3 2009.

Homeowners now represent over half (51%) of all new IVA applicants, up from 39% in Q3 2008, when the majority (51%) were tenants.  The average income per applicant is £24,852, demonstrating that IVAs have increasingly become the domain of middle income homeowners.   The majority (54%) of IVA applicants are aged between 35 and 55 but 12% are aged over 55.

Matt Trueman, head of financial difficulties at TDX Group said: "These figures clearly demonstrate how over the last nine months the recession has worsened the UK’s personal debt crisis.  Overall, volumes have increased people are paying back less each month.”