Introduction
We publish provisional number of people entering into personal insolvency on a quarterly basis.
Provisional personal insolvency statistics for the financial year are released at the same time as the June quarter statistics each year.
Data collection
Every debtor who becomes bankrupt or proposes a debt agreement or personal insolvency agreement is required to lodge a completed statement of affairs form with AFSA. The business and non-business personal insolvency statistics are generally sourced from this form.
When a bankruptcy is the result of a sequestration order, there may be a delay before the bankrupt lodges a statement of affairs. When this occurs, we record the bankruptcy as non-business related. We update the record with information supplied by the bankrupt when the statement of affairs is lodged. Bankruptcies resulting from sequestration orders accounted for 8% of bankruptcies in 2019–20. We do not revise the provisional statistics with this updated data.
Scope and coverage
The quarterly personal insolvency statistics are published at the state and territory level. When possible, this information is based on the state of residence reported on the statement of affairs form. When a bankruptcy is the result of a sequestration order, we record the debtors address supplied by the court. We update this address when the bankrupt lodges a statement of affairs.
Our quarterly statistics report on the most recent debtor’s address supplied to us. We validate these addresses as correct addresses.
The quarterly personal insolvency statistics solely relate to personal insolvencies and not corporate insolvencies.
Defining a business related personal insolvency
A business related personal insolvency occurs where the debtor has declared operating a business in the last five years, or two years for a debt agreement. A business is defined as:
- operated as sole trader, including as a contractor, subcontractor or similar; or
- been involved in a partnership; or
- been a director/secretary in a company; or
- held a management role in a company.
Comparison with other datasets
We report personal information, including whether a debtor’s personal insolvency is business related, based on the number of people.
Information presented in the quarterly personal insolvency statistics is not directly reconcilable with information in other publications.
Personal insolvency activity is recorded on a live system and can change regularly. Our publications are correct as at the time of compilation.
Revisions
The quarterly personal insolvency statistics are not revised unless an error is identified.