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IVAs help the most people - for the 7th quarter in a row

Again, IVAs have helped more people in England and Wales than either bankruptcy or DROs (Debt Relief Orders).

In the final three months of last year - the fourth quarter - almost 11,000 people entered an IVA to help them deal with unmanageable debts.

That's the seventh time in a row that IVAs have outnumbered the other two kinds of personal insolvency over a three-month period. In the fourth quarter of 2012, almost 7,400 people entered a DRO. Just over 6,900 entered bankruptcy.

Commenting on the figures, a spokesperson for the IVA Advisory Centre said: "Altogether, there's been a big drop in personal insolvencies over the last year: the last three months of 2011 saw more than 29,000 people declared insolvent, so the latest quarterly figure of just over 25,300 means a drop of 13%."

While IVAs remain the most common form of personal insolvency, they've also seen a decrease - of over 15%.

"For an IVA to be approved, the borrower, the Insolvency Practitioner and the lenders have to be confident that the borrower can make their monthly payments for the duration - normally five years. At a time like this, with so many people worried about job security, it's understandable that some with debt problems don't feel they can make that kind of commitment.

"We'd recommend that anyone in that position talks to a debt adviser as soon as they can. Even if an IVA isn't an option, an expert will be able to go over their finances with them and suggest other ways of tackling their problems."