Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

family image via Shutterstock

85 per cent in debt deals are families with children

In the first 20 deals, one quarter voluntarily handed the keys to their property over to the bank.

GRANT THORNTON DEBT Solutions today announced it has submitted its first batch of 20 applications to the Insolvency Service of Ireland (ISI) with the vast majority of cases dealing with families that have children.

These cases have been pre-approved by banks and have now moved to Protective Certificate under the new legislation introduced this year.

This comes after the first debt settlement arrangement was agreed yesterday with a debtor based in the north west of the country. The borrower had 70 per cent of a six-figure debt written off as part of the deal.

Figures from the company show that more than half of the cases were for debts such as mortgage debt while 45 per cent were deals on unsecured debt on personal loans or credit cards.

image

Click here for larger image

Handing back the keys

GT Debt Solutions said some 25 per cent of the cases opted to voluntarily hand over the keys of their properties to the bank, allowing them to leave behind an unsustainable mortgage.

Most of the first 20 cases - 85 per cent of them in total – are families with children with the largest proportion married with two children.

image

Click here for larger image

The 20 individuals come from a cross section of occupations including public servants, office workers, sales assistants and tradesmen.

GT Debt Solutions said that in the cases of DSAs – where a person has unsecured debt like a personal loan – many of these families are living on less than the reasonable living expenses as pressures from creditors put them under “great financial stress”.

Milestone

Commenting on the first cases today, GT Debt Solutions’ Stephen Tennant said it was an “important milestone” for those looking to avail of the new legislation.

“We can see that the market is now starting to find its feet, and that industry protocol is beginning to develop,” he said. “There is a realisation that the legislation, while not perfect, offers a strong basis for individuals with multi creditor exposures to deal with their financial problems in a systematic fashion.”

The personal insolvency practitioner said more cases will follow closely behind this first batch.

Related: Most of borrower’s debt written off in first deal under new insolvency regime>

Read: Two more insolvency cases heard under new regime as 7,500 contact ISI>

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

Close
29 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute tmwtbc
    Favourite tmwtbc
    Report
    Aug 4th 2014, 7:10 PM

    I really like this type of stuff. The NLI site is very interesting but I find the search facility takes a bit of getting used to.

    145
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Furey
    Favourite Paul Furey
    Report
    Aug 4th 2014, 9:12 PM

    The look on the young fellas face as he stares at the Indian. He doesn’t know but he’s just had a WTF moment.

    83
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Kathleen Kavanagh
    Favourite Kathleen Kavanagh
    Report
    Aug 4th 2014, 8:05 PM

    Need more of these – I am always looking to see if I can see any of my relatives back then – the one with the lady sitting on the ledge turning to look back is the image of my own mother.
    History is great.

    63
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ciarán Ferrie
    Favourite Ciarán Ferrie
    Report
    Aug 5th 2014, 12:17 AM

    There’s a treasure trove of these kinds of photos on the NLI Flickr account https://www.flickr.com/photos/nlireland/

    NLI used crowd sourcing to identify a lot of information about the photos in the collection.

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Margaret Doyle Hanley
    Favourite Margaret Doyle Hanley
    Report
    Aug 5th 2014, 12:30 AM

    + Dublin in the rare oul times.

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Joe McKenna
    Favourite Joe McKenna
    Report
    Aug 5th 2014, 1:07 AM

    Incredible stuff.

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Yeera Yeahboy
    Favourite Yeera Yeahboy
    Report
    Aug 5th 2014, 10:34 AM

    Wonderful images! He was clearly a true talent.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute FlopFlipU
    Favourite FlopFlipU
    Report
    Aug 5th 2014, 6:33 AM

    Yes dr who as yes Clark

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Lord mountainbaton
    Favourite Lord mountainbaton
    Report
    Aug 5th 2014, 5:59 AM

    A man before his time!

    1
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds