SINGAPORE \u2013 More people in Singapore are being declared bankrupt, going by the latest official statistics, although their age distribution has largely stayed the same.<\/p>\n
Personal bankruptcy cases reached 482 in the first quarter of 2026, up from 378 in the same period in 2025, according to data from the Ministry of Law (MinLaw).<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for MinLaw told The Straits Times there are five reasons why most people become bankrupt. These are business failure; overspending on consumer goods and services; unemployment or retrenchment; acting as a guarantor for a business or another individual; and insufficient income to meet daily expenses.<\/p>\n
Such information is declared to the authorities when a person applies for bankruptcy in Singapore or is made bankrupt by a creditor.<\/p>\n
The age distribution of bankrupts has remained largely stable year on year, MinLaw noted.<\/p>\n
Between 2016 and September 2025, those aged 40 to 54 formed the largest group of bankrupts, accounting for almost half, or 47 per cent, of the 12,238 cases.<\/p>\n
Those aged 25 to 39 made up 29 per cent, and those aged 55 and above constituted 24 per cent. Just under 1 per cent, or 52 individuals, were aged 24 and below.<\/p>\n
Declaring bankruptcy should be seen as a last resort, experts said.<\/p>\n
Ms Jean Lee, fund-raising manager at Adullam Life Counselling, advised borrowers to seek help early before their debt grows out of control.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the debt is smaller, it is easier to talk to creditors,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
However, some hesitate to come forward and will try to resolve the problem on their own.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe natural reaction is to take debt to pay debts. You solve today\u2019s problem (but) it becomes tomorrow\u2019s problem,\u201d said Ms Lee, whose organisation is a social service agency that helps individuals struggling with debt to avoid bankruptcy.<\/p>\n
Mr Jonathan Ong, a licensed insolvency practitioner, said that in most bankruptcy cases he has come across, debtors would have already exhausted all borrowing avenues before seeking help.<\/p>\n
By then, it will not be possible to repay or restructure their debt based on their personal or employment situation, added Mr Ong, director of restructuring and insolvency at EisnerAmper Singapore, a global accounting, tax and business advisory firm.<\/p>\n
MinLaw data shows that personal bankruptcies hit a post-pandemic peak in 2025. There were 1,623 cases in 2025, the highest since 2019, when 1,645 individuals entered insolvency.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In 2025, Adullam saw a 13 per cent increase in the number of people seeking help with debt issues, reflecting financial strains on the ground.<\/p>\n
Ms Lee said they come from all walks of life, with 10 per cent classified as low-income earners, 85 per cent as middle-income earners and 5 per cent in the high-income group.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The number of scam victims seeking help has risen in the last one to two years, she also noted.<\/p>\n
The increase was particularly evident in 2025. In December alone, more than half of the cases Adullam counselled were scam-related.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe scammers are not just scamming people out of their savings. They are actually teaching the victim to take loans to pay them. It is a very dangerous trend,\u201d Ms Lee said, adding that the victims incurred both credit card and moneylender debts.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst, you wipe out all my savings. Then I am saddled with debt; sometimes, it can be a few hundred thousands,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Alex (not his real name) fell for an investment scam on Facebook in August 2025 and was declared a bankrupt in early March.<\/p>\n
Speaking to ST on condition of anonymity, the 50-year-old said he chalked up $330,000 in credit card debt to invest in the Malaysia, China and Taiwan stock markets.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey enticed investors to put in more money. So I started to borrow from the banks,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Alex realised something was amiss only when he was unable to access the investment app and the firm did not reply to his messages.<\/p>\n
After two months, he could no longer cope with the monthly repayments to the banks. \u201cI had to pay about $6,000 every month,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He tried to get a debt consolidation plan with the banks, but was rejected. He then sought help from his MP, who referred him to Adullam.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe amount I owed was too huge, so I was advised to file for bankruptcy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Alex is among a small number of clients at Adullam who filed for bankruptcy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ms Lee said most of the other cases managed to clear their debts after mediation with creditors to negotiate a repayment plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n
EisnerAmper\u2019s Mr Ong said larger debts of more than $200,000 are typically linked to business failures or the loss of high-income employment.\u00a0He added that many business owners go into bankruptcy because they acted as personal guarantors for their business loans from financial institutions and moneylenders.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Joseph (not his real name) filed for bankruptcy in August 2020 when his semiconductor manufacturing business failed during the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
The business required a huge amount of capital and investments because product industrialisation takes three to four years to become profitable.<\/p>\n
Joseph said his monthly company expenses ranged between $80,000 and $100,000. He realised he needed partners, but the pandemic hit and potential investors put all investments on hold.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were already running out of funds. Travel was restricted. We were not able to produce anything (and) workers needed to go back. All came to a halt,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
While still hoping for an investor to save his company,\u00a0Joseph turned to four moneylenders, ultimately chalking up a total debt of $400,000.<\/p>\n
But the loans were not enough to pay the salaries of his 10 employees and sustain the business.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Eventually, one of the moneylenders applied to declare him bankrupt.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now in his 50s, Joseph is in his sixth year of bankruptcy. In Singapore, a first-time bankrupt is generally eligible for discharge\u00a0if he is able to fulfil the payment of his target contribution within 52 months, or MinLaw may consider discharging him in seven years.<\/p>\n
He is rebuilding his life and working as a delivery driver.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
People with smaller debts of between $15,000 and $150,000 may be considered for the Debt Repayment Scheme (DRS) after they have filed for bankruptcy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ms Lee said there are debt consultancy firms that encourage borrowers to file for bankruptcy to qualify for the scheme.<\/p>\n
These debtors are given the mistaken impression that they can restructure their debt under DRS, sometimes paying back only a fraction of what they owed, she noted.<\/p>\n
The consultants charge them a fee of $4,000 to $5,000. Some also encourage debtors to take out loans to cover their fees, or to intentionally cross the $15,000 threshold required to file for bankruptcy, Ms Lee noted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe feel that is the main reason why the bankruptcy numbers have been increasing,\u201d she said, adding that \u201cthere is no sudden jump in the number of real bankrupts\u201d.<\/p>\n
Between January and April, the Singapore courts referred 959 cases to MinLaw\u2019s Insolvency Office for assessment under DRS.<\/p>\n
This is lower than the 1,226 cases referred during the same period in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For the whole of 2025, 3,598 cases were assessed, a decrease of 1.5 per cent from the 3,654 cases in 2024.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, however, bankruptcy should not be viewed as the end of the road.<\/p>\n
Mr Vincent Lee, president of Adullam, said bankruptcy offers individuals an opportunity for a financial and personal reset.<\/p>\n
As they work towards clearing their debts, they also begin to refocus on other aspects of their lives, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have seen people who are in debt… they start to realise that maybe they have missed out on some very important areas of their life.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SINGAPORE \u2013 More people in Singapore are being declared bankrupt, going by the latest official statistics, although their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164],"class_list":["post-696004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}