Self-employed individuals are the most likely to seek advice on bankruptcy, according to statistics from Citizens Advice.
The organisation reports that in the past three months, a third of self-employed individuals who approached it for help had debt problems.
Of those, more than one in ten received advice on bankruptcy – accounting for more than one in 30 of all self-employed enquiries.
To put this into perspective, debt was a problem for the same proportion – a third – of unemployed people, but only one in 20 got bankruptcy advice.
And a smaller proportion of in-work people, around 29%, sought advice on debt, with just 7% being advised on bankruptcy.
Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said: “Often self-employment can be the first step towards getting back into employment as people take up jobs like taxi drivers and cleaners.
“As the experience of our clients show, it is not an immediate solution to financial woes.”
Bankruptcy is not the only risk faced by the self-employed; the report notes that they are also more likely to seek advice on secured loans and mortgage debts.
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