THE number of people in Yorkshire being declared bankrupt rose by almost a third last year.

Now insolvency experts fear figures will soar further - with credit card debt at an all-time high.

Government figures showed that 3,907 people in the region were made bankrupt in 2004 - some 31% up on the figure for 2003.

Nationally, the number of personal bankruptcies rose by 29% to 35,898 - with more than 13,000 of those in the final quarter of the year.

There was also a 55% rise in the number of people opting for an Individual Voluntary Arrangement - an agreement to pay a proportion of their debts to creditors rather than go bankrupt.

Peter Sargent, Huddersfield and Halifax spokesman for the Association of Business Recovery Professionals, said the rising number of IVAs was a trend set to continue for the foreseeable future.

Mr Sargent, of Sargent & Co in Halifax, said: "We have seen a trend of people trying to sort out their debts before it is too late.

"They are re-mortgaging their houses and using the spare cash to settle up with their creditors in a one-off deal."

Paul Bateman, northern head of personal insolvency at accountancy firm KPMG, said the latest figures suggested that high levels of bankruptcy were becoming the norm.

He said: "I believe we can expect to see annual rates of 60,000 UK bankruptcies within the next three years.

"If the UK follows the US trend, where bankruptcy rates per head of population are 10 times UK figures, we can expect even greater increases."