The Insolvency Service (IS) has recently published new data that has revealed that in 2017 women were more likely to address their debt problems than men.
This is the fourth year running that the IS has found a correlation between the sexes, leading it to suggest that there is a growing ‘gender insolvency gap’ in the UK.
The overall insolvency rate rose in all UK regions between 2016 and 2017, standing at 21.4 individuals per 10,000 adults, up from just 19.7 in 2016, according to the data – the highest level on record since 2014.
At 22.6, the individual insolvency rate per 10,000 adults was higher for women than for men, whose insolvency rate was 20.2 in comparison.
Mark Sands, Chairman of the Personal Insolvency Committee at R3, the insolvency trade body, said: “Many factors feed into this gender disparity. For example, women are much more likely than men to work part-time and in sectors and roles with lower pay; women are often paid less than men for performing comparable work, as the gender pay gap shows; and they are more likely to be single parents, which has a high correlation with greater poverty levels.”
However, women were more likely to consider Debt Relief Orders (DROs) and Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs), which may indicate that women facing financial distress are more likely to address their debt problems.
Looking more closely at the data Stoke-on-Trent in central England was the UK’s ‘debt capital’, followed by Plymouth, Hull and Scarborough.
It is believed that the sharp increases in the number of people struggling with debt problems in recent years have been driven largely by low interest rates, payday loans and increasing use of personal contract plans for car purchases.
