In Great Britain, PriceWaterhouseCoopers has said that more and more people are declaring bankruptcy at an increasing rate, however the number of people who are declaring bankruptcy isn’t increasing at the rate that was expected.

In February 2009, 67,428 people declared bankruptcy and another almost 40,000 people decided to turn to Individual Voluntary Arrangements in 2008. The total for the entire United Kingdom of people who had filed for bankruptcy protection was just over 106,000 people.

There were plenty of financial analysts that were expecting there to be more than 130,000 people in the United Kingdom that would have filed for bankruptcy or for the Individual Voluntary Arrangements by the end of 2008.

The only reason that there weren’t more IVAs taken out was because (as analysts believe) people were taking out a second mortgage on their homes. When someone gets a secured loan such as this one, they are no longer eligible for an IVA. This would also account as to why there are more repossessions in the United Kingdom this year. When someone puts their house up as collateral, then it is going to be taken by the creditor when that person decides to default on the loan, or they can no longer pay on the loan.

In the final quarter of 2008, more than 13,000 houses were taken back by the bank. This number is quite likely to go up in 2009 as more mortgages are expected to be underwater by the end of the year

In April 2009, the Debt Relief Order was introduced by the United Kingdom government. It was meant to help those who are having serious debt issues with small incomes. The people that it helps are those who have very few assets (less than 300 British pounds in value) and a disposable income of under 50 pounds a month. It will also only help those who owe less than 15,000 pounds.

Of course, there are plenty of options out there for those who want to and have the intentions of fixing their debt issues. One does not have to merely fall into that small gap to qualify for debt relief. This is where the IVAs come in. With an IVA, someone can keep their home and go through a process to help alleviate some of their debt issues. Again, there are certain stipulations to this kind of debt relief as well, but it isn’t as stringent as the DRO from the government.

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Just like at a funeral, at the beginning of the recession people were mourning. The clothes told the story: people would be wearing black and other drab colors while going to work. It was like that for the past year, ever since the fall of Lehman Brothers. Now, that things are finally starting to perk up a bit, those who have jobs are starting to wear colorful clothes again.

Men’s ties are being seen as an economic indicator. Because men’s ties are a cheap way to change a wardrobe, it is typically the first thing that outwardly indicates that, not only are these guys going out and buying clothes, but they are buying bight colors again.

This is just one of the many economic indicators that have been noted in the past few months. Another, and funnier in my opinion, indicator was the underwear index. Men were going out and purchasing more underwear and that was supposedly an indicator that the economy was going to perk up a bit more.

Another indicator is piles of garbage outside restaurants. The piles indicate that people are eating out again, which is one of the signs that the economy (really) is picking up again. Anytime people have disposable income to go to a restaurant and eat it is a good sign for not only the restaurant but the overall economy as well.

While a lot of data was used to compile this information, of course, some of it could be misread messages. Men could be wearing bright colored ties because it’s warm outside and they want to reflect the weather. Restaurants are using promotions to bring people in the doors more now than ever. Men need underwear and if they haven’t bought any new undies since the fall of Lehman Brothers, then perhaps it is time for them to get some new underpants.

I would like for the recession to see an end as much as everyone else, but are we grasping at straws by putting money into studies like this one?

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The requirements for filing for a DRO are from Think Money:

• The person filing can’t pay their debts.
• He/She must owe less than 15,000 pounds.
• He/She must have 50 pounds or less disposable income a month.
• He/She doesn’t own assets worth more than a total of 300 pounds excluding an automobile, under some special circumstances. Homeowners are not eligible.
• He/She isn’t currently involved in another formal insolvency procedure.
• He/She hasn’t been the subject of a DRO in the past 6 years.

In the year that the DRO is active, the person who filed for the order will be protected from enforcement action by the creditors listed in the application, be free from the debts at the end of the DRO, must cooperate with the Official Receiver, and will be expected to make arrangements and repay all creditors once their financial circumstances improve.

There are also certain circumstances, such as fraud when applying for the DRO that can result in prosecution, so if you know someone who is thinking about filing for a DRO, they must not put any fraudulent information on the application or fail to cooperate with the Original Register.

Even with the negatives to this, if someone is qualified to apply for a debt relief order and their income situation isn’t going to be getting better, that they can see, in the short term then it may be the best option for them.

Here in town, gas Thursday was at $3.99 a gallon. The national average is just a little above that at $4.05. When gas is as expensive as it is, it doesn’t matter $0.05 or $0.10 more or less expensive. The total when you fill up your tank is still WAYYYY more than it should be. I have to fill up the tank in my car next time I go out, which is becoming less and less.

I would like to see oil prices keep going down because that means more disposable income for us. Well, more money we can put into savings every month.