Insolvency Service quarterly stats are a niche read, admittedly. But for the geeks amongst us (guilty) they show an overall year on year rise of 18% in personal insolvencies of all types, to almost 12,000 new cases in February 2026. Scratching the surface, and looking at the different processes, bankruptcies were 25% up year on year, IVAs were up both year on year (20%) and as against January (6%), Debt Relief Orders hit a record high since their introduction in 2009, but Breathing Spaces fell by 35%. 

The explanation for this mixed procedural message within the overall rise in the trend since the pandemic seems to be that the Insolvency Service has unblocked its processes (meaning perhaps a smoother entry through debtor applications to the adjudicator online, or at least the records being updated on receipt from the adjudicator's office) and a market shift in eligibility criteria that has driven down the Breathing Space numbers.

More detailed analysis of the upward trend since the pandemic also suggests that relatively modest fee changes and the changing regulatory landscape have an effect on volume: withdrawal of the £90 fee for a Debt Relief Order caused a numbers uptick in 2024; the introduction of the FCA and a change in approach from Recognised Professional Bodies to referral fees softened the number of IVAs in 2023, but these numbers have been strengthening into 2025 and 2026; and a change in approach by the extremely worthwhile Step Change charity to Breathing Spaces sits behind the 35% collapse in these numbers year on year.

Interestingly (and not just for geeks) debtor driven online applications to the adjudicator outnumber creditor petitions by 6 to 1, and there is a fall of 30% in creditor petitions. Setting aside the IS improvements in their processes and record keeping, this does seem to show that creditors prefer to avoid bankruptcy (or possibly the fee and the deposit) if at all possible, whereas the certainty of the process may be maintaining the general business in the adjudicator's office.

The bird's eye stat, using the broadest possible definition of “insolvency”, is that this year on year increase means that nearly 26 (it is 25.8) adults in every 10,000 is in an insolvency process. This has jumped from 24 in February 2025, but whilst this might be concerning, the older reader might remember the spike in 2009/10 caused by the recession of 2008 during which the rate of adult insolvency comfortably passed 30 per 10,000.

(Apologies to my friends in Scotland and NI - this post only concerns England and Wales)