Numbers of personal insolvencies in 2024, while slowly increasing, remain at well under half their number in 2018.
There were:
2,794 new personal insolvencies in the 3-month period to December 2024
up from
2,608 in the December 2023 quarter
up from
2,321 in December 2022 quarter.
In context, there were 6,858 in the December 2018 quarter.
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Having taken a 28% slide in the 6 months to December 2024, personal insolvencies followed a post-Christmas-new year pattern of increasing to 940 in January 2025, from 828 in December 2024.
The 940 is below the January 2024 figure of 1,015.
Significantly, debt agreements (490, 52%) exceeded bankruptcies (438, 47%) in number, with only 12 (1%) Part X agreements. Bankruptcies have typically accounted for about two thirds of personal insolvencies, and debt agreements one third.
Debt agreements produce over 50c/$ return to creditors; bankruptcies 2c/$.
Less people – 219 – were involved in a business, dropping from 249 in December 2024. This covers sole traders, people in partnerships or directors in companies. Over 40% of bankruptcies were MSME-business related.
With the number of personal insolvencies for the seven months totaling 7,033, AFSA’s latest forecast that the number will rise by 15% to 13,400 in 2024–25 would require an average monthly figure of over 1,270 for the 5 months to June 2025.
Many latch on to these figures in the hope necessarily that numbers will continue to fall, and while current variances are not that significant, overall a continued fall may well transpire. See Trio of factors keep lid on personal insolvencies, The Australian, 3 March 2025.
Further context will be provided when AFSA releases its quarterly September-December 2024 statistical analysis on 7 March 2025.
