Banks 'must provide bank accounts after bankruptcy'

People who have declared bankruptcy should still be allowed access to basic bank accounts, one organisation has said, as not having one can make everyday life more difficult.

Although it suggested that the government and financial institutions "should be applauded" for halving the number of unbanked individuals, the Citizens Advice Bureau has called for more to be done to help those who have been forced to resort to personal insolvency.

"When someone is made bankrupt their life does not stop," the body commented in a statement, explaining that people's salaries and benefits still need to be received and bills need to be paid.

This means that obstacles can be put in the way of gaining employment and not just the individual but those close to them can be affected.

Citing a statement from the Insolvency Service, the body noted that there was no legislation in place to prevent undisclosed bankrupts from attaining a bank account and there was no risk to financial institutions by doing so.

Last year, the Citizen's Advice Bureau helped 1.9 million individuals to overcome six million difficulties from its 438 offices across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

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Anyone looking to remortgage their home to deal with debt management issues may struggle because of the falling house prices.

One of the signs a person may be struggling with debt management is that they only ever make minimum repayments on their credit card, one organisation has said.

Debt management problems in the UK could still be prevalent after new figures from the Bank of England showed record amounts of write-offs for credit cards.

There was an increase in the number of people looking for debt management advice from Citizen's Advice Bureaux in the first three month of 2010.

Filing for bankruptcy in cases of financial difficulty may not necessarily always be the easy option.

Homelessness in Scotland may be being caused by poor debt management, with a recent study showing a number of cases are due to mortgage arrears.

Debt management could affect pensioners, with living costs and inflation rising

Those going to university should make sure they draw up a monthly budget to avoid finding themselves with debt management problems, it has been advised.

If interest rates were not at an historic low, there would be more people struggling with debt management, one expert has said.

Thousands of new debt management cases are being seen by Citizen's Advice Bureaus every day, it has been revealed.