Data on Annual Number of People Placed under Pre-bankruptcy Debt Repayment Scheme in Last Five Years

Ms Mariam Jaafar asked the Minister for Law (a) in the last five years, what is the annual number of people who have been placed under the pre-bankruptcy Debt Repayment Scheme administered by the Official Assignee; and (b) what percentage of these people did not meet their monthly debt repayments.

The Debt Repayment Scheme (DRS) is a pre-bankruptcy scheme administered by the Official Assignee. Debtors with unsecured debts not exceeding $150,000 will be able to avoid bankruptcy by entering into a debt repayment plan under the DRS, which requires them to make monthly debt repayments to their creditors. However, if they are unable to meet stipulated monthly debt repayments over a period of time, they will be exited from the DRS arrangement and may eventually be adjudged a bankrupt. Since implementation, the DRS take-up has steadily increased.

In the last five years: (a) the annual number of people placed under the DRS according to the commencement year (CY); and (b) the percentage of these people who were not able to meet their monthly debt repayments and therefore had to be exited from the DRS, are set out in the table below.

Cases that commenced earlier show a higher exit rate as they have been in progress for a longer period of time. The tapering off of the COVID-19 financial relief measures and the increase in maximum debt threshold for the DRS are likely contributing factors to the increase in cases under the DRS in 2021.