Something that we hear a lot is that Personal Insolvency Practitioners are expensive, while they may be costly, it is worth looking at where the cost base rests. While one party may have the appearance of ‘paying’ for something, in fact it’s forgone income to the creditors, we demonstrate this using simple T-accounts to show how it works.

Another critique is that ‘not everybody will be able to afford it or obtain an insolvency arrangement’, again, this is in part structural and not necessarily some kind of financial bigotry. To strike an insolvency deal, the same as a company being granted examinership, you have to have some ‘post plan’ survival plan, if you are below poverty levels already taking one out would be to your detriment.

Rather it is the case that for people who are too financially underwater to create a plan will have two choices, non-ISI agreements with the bank, or bankruptcy. The same applies for a company, examinership is not always granted where there is no workable plan for after the protective period.