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.

The insurer goes on to say that over a million UK residents have borrowed too much credit and are now struggling to keep up their repayments, with less than 4 million struggling to manage their credit card bills.

Half a million home owners have been threatened with a bailiff or eviction and personal county court judgements CCJs has increased in quarter 3 to their highest level since the start of 2007

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.

Individual insolvencies in England and Wales increased to 27,087 in the third quarter of 2008, up 8.8 per cent from 24,893 in the previous quarter.

Bankruptcies and Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs) have increased 12 and 3 percent respectively.

The credit crunch could be blamed for the increase in corporate and personal insolvency throughout 2008, however, its patently obvious that further failures are going to be compounded by the recession throughout 2009.

It was hoped that the SIVA, planned for release in early 2009 would help with some of the debt burden, however, the Insolvency Service has just abandoned the concept.

Where an IVA needed 75 per cent of creditors to accept the proposal for insolvency a Simplified IVA or SIVA only required that a majority accept the terms. The SIVA was intended to be launched next year with a creditor cap of 75,000.

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.