IVA levels likely to grow

The number of people seeking Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs) is likely to increase in the next year as more people seek debt management solutions, it has been claimed.

James Falla, director of debt counselling service Thomas Charles and Co, said that the amount of problem debt that borrowers were getting themselves into was continuing to grow.

There were likely to be more problems out there to be dealt with, he added and the number of IVAs was set to increase over the next year and even beyond the next two years.

Earlier in the month, Debt Free Direct said that it had issued twice as many Ivas between May and October than in the same six months last year.

However, a report issued from the Centre for Economic and Business Research last month indicated that although Britons had a larger amount of unsecured debt than their European counterparts, UK debt was generally at a manageable level.