No. of personal bankruptcy re-filings double in 3 years in Korea

[Photo by Kim Ho-young]

The number of personal bankruptcy applications from debtors who have filed for bankruptcy procedures in the past is on the rise, with the majority of them being in their 60s or older.

According to data obtained by Representative Jin Sun-mee of the Democratic Party from the Supreme Court, the number of individuals who re-filed for personal bankruptcy after receiving a personal bankruptcy exemption decision earlier increased to 1,021 in 2022 from 595 in 2019, 770 in 2020, and 998 in 2021.

In the first six months of this year, there were 740 cases, already surpassing 72 percent of the entire number of applications received in 2022.

The number of cases where individuals who had received a personal rehabilitation discharge applied for personal bankruptcy again also increased to 200 in the January-June period, up from 91 in 2019, 127 in 2020, 173 in 2021, and 219 in 2022.

As of June this year, there were 16,125 cases with a bankruptcy trustee’s report in personal bankruptcy cases.

This means that 4.6 percent of personal bankruptcy applicants have already been discharged from their debts in personal bankruptcy and 1.2 percent have been granted a discharge in personal rehabilitation.