Bankruptcy gets personal

Almost ninety per cent of bankruptcies were non-business related in the March quarter.

While business related bankruptcies continue to decline, the growth in non-business related bankruptcy activity continues to grow.

There were 824 business related bankruptcies in the March quarter, down from 851 in December and 958 in the March quarter of 2008.

John Beecroft from Debtassist.com.au says bankruptcy is a common option for people losing their jobs. "I ask people - 'what chance do you think you have of getting a job again soon?' If they say I don't know or something similar really there isn't much room for them to move.

"Bankruptcy can be pretty cheap too if there are no real assets and no capacity to pay; then we do the paper work and send it off to ITSA where it is basically a paper entry."

As for small-business owners and company debt problems, Beecroft says the banks are generally not looking to force businesses into liquidation as quickly as they might have done in the past.

"This has a different feel to [the recession of] 1990. We have noticed that banks are not looking to go bang, like they did then, and force businesses into liquidation.

"There is nowhere near as much corporate work around as we were expecting."