Simon Read: 'Women are more likely to go bankrupt than men'

The personal insolvency rate for women overtook that for men for the first time last year

Women are now officially more likely than men to go bust. The personal insolvency rate for women overtook that for men for the first time last year, the Insolvency Service covering England and Wales reported this week.

The personal insolvency rate per 10,000 adults was 22.2 for women in 2014, but just 21.2 for men. But young women are now almost twice as likely to go bankrupt as young men, warned accountants Moore Stephens, as the Insolvency Service data revealed 2,406 women under the age of 25 went insolvent last year, compared to just 1,297 men in the same age group.

Phillip Sykes of R3, said: "Women may be less likely to stick their head in the sand about debt problems; or the figures could reflect that low-value debts have a bigger impact on women's finances than men."

Against that background, a separate report revealed that teenage girls are getting significantly less financial education than boys. The ifs University College said that at GCSE level, where financial education is compulsory, just 36 per cent of girls currently learn about personal finance, while 45 per cent of boys the same age do. Girls also receive fewer classroom hours studying financial education.

s.read@independent.co.uk

twitter: @simonnread