In a blow to alpha males all over the UK, one of the country’s main debt charities, the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) has discovered that men are more likely to become insolvent than women.
Releasing its insolvency statistics by gender, which revealed higher rates of bankruptcy and Individual Voluntary Arrangement recommendations for men than women, CCCS disclosed that last year, of those it recommended an IVAto, 55.4 percent were men while 51.4 percent were women.
And for those who cast doubt on the charity’s own figures, the existence of an insolvency gender divide is supported by figures obtained from the Insolvency Service.
Statistics from 2000 to 2008 showed that men have always taken out more IVA's or gone bankrupt more than women. In 2008, the most recent available figures by gender, 23,173 women went bankrupt compared to 37,972 men - marking an increase of over 50 percent.
In 2008 17,300 women took out an IVA, four thousand less than the 21,318 men who did.
The levels of debt for CCCS clients give an indication as to why there are higher numbers of insolvency among men. While couples have more debt than single people, on average owing just over £30,000, single men owe on average £19,830, which is 17 percent more than the average of £16,937 for single women.
Commenting on the findings, CCCS spokeswoman Frances Walker said: “This may be the one equality which women may not want to aspire to. Whatever sex you are, I would urge anyone worried about their debt to seek help as soon as possible.”