Recession Increases Bankruptcy Claims Among Middle Class
In 2009, the percentage of individual consumers filing for bankruptcy who hold bachelor's or graduates degrees and have an annual income of $60,000 or over, increased, demonstrating that the ongoing recession is having a greater impact on middle class Americans. These statistics were published in the 2009 Annual Consumer Bankruptcy Demographic Report that the Institute for Financial Literacy, a non-profit financial counseling and education organization based in Portland, Maine, recently released.
The report's data proves that more middle-class Americans have perceptibly been forced into bankruptcy in the past year. Leslie Linfield, the Executive Director for the Institute for Financial Literacy, was quoted as saying, "As in years past, the average American in financial distress and seeking credit counseling and financial education is a 35- 44 year old married Caucasian with a high school degree or some college who is working and earning less than $30,000 per year. What differentiates the 2009 data from previous years is the increase in bankruptcy filings among individuals earning $60,000 or more a year, those holding bachelors or graduate degrees, and adults ages 55 and older."
The information on gender, age, ethnicity and additional factors was gathered from over 52,000 consumers seeking the mandatory pre-bankruptcy credit counseling or post-bankruptcy debtor education courses throughout the United States. The Institute for Financial Literacy has published a Consumer Bankruptcy Demographics Report every year since 2005. The 2009 report offers insights into the dramatic effect of the recession on American debtors.
Besides proving that more middle-class Americans are being forced into bankruptcy, the repots' demographic data also showed that bankruptcy rates among unemployed U.S. citizens are higher than in previous years, while Americans who are married have seen an 8% increase in filings since 2006. Also, Asian Americans are filing bankruptcy at double the rate they were in 2006.
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