Mr. Christopher Lehane:

These are cases in which people have been made bankrupt only in the past few months. They are in default because there was such a build-up before they were interested in bankruptcy. As regards those commitments, it can be a range of situations - for example, their capacity may have improved and they can come out of default.

Within bankruptcy - and this is where it comes down to the decision of the official signee - he or she considers, having regard to the circumstances of the individuals, the scale of the mortgage they are in. Bankruptcy sounds horrific to people and the reason is that it had an horrific stigma in the past. For some people, bankruptcy is due to their having got in way above their heads, so asking them to sustain completely unsustainable mortgage payments in order to stay in their family home-----