Written answer by Minister for Law, K Shanmugam, to Parliamentary Question on undischarged bankrupts

16 Sep 2013 Posted in Parliamentary speeches and responses

Mr Chen Show Mao, Aljunied GRC

Question
To ask the Minister for Law (a) for each year from 2007 to 2012, what is the number of undischarged bankrupts aged (i) 45-55 years (ii) 56-65 years and (iii) over 65 years; and (b) what percentage of each of these groups of undischarged bankrupts is due to (i) income not matching expenditure (ii) unemployment or (iii) business failures.

Answer

1. The number of undischarged bankrupts for each year from 2007 to 2012 aged (i) 45-55 years (ii) 56-65 years and (iii) over 65 years, are provided in Tables 1, 2 and 3 respectively.

Table 1

Table 2

Table 3

2. A breakdown in percentages for the three causes of insolvency that the Member enquired on, is set out in Tables 4, 5 and 6 for the years 2007 to 2012. This is based on information declared to the Official Assignee by the bankrupts. A bankrupt may declare more than one cause of insolvency. In addition, the category titled “income not matching expenditure” in Tables 4, 5 and 6 consists of bankrupts who have declared “overspending” and/or “low income” as causes of insolvency. Other causes of insolvency include ill health, liability as a guarantor for a debt, inability to pay a judgment sum ordered by a court in criminal or civil proceedings, and gambling.

Table 4

Table 5

Table 6

Last updated on 24 Sep 2013