ABSTRACT
In order further to promote the rehabilitation strategy in 2000 the Insolvency Service produced a novel concept of "a post-bankruptcy IVA". Once the idea had taken root that bankruptcy was legitimately concerned with rehabilitating the bankrupt it did not require a great leap of imagination to conceive that in some cases debt repayment procedures and debtor salvation might be facilitated outside bankruptcy. Bankruptcy thus is essentially a transient state of affairs that holds out the promise to the debtor of redemption through discharge. The realisation that bankruptcy is not a terminal condition is reflected in the fact that it is possible for an individual to undergo successive bankruptcies. Bankruptcy involves the realisation of "hard" assets for the benefit of creditors. Many debtors, however, possess other intangible and future assets, such as human capital and the ability to continue to earn, which might offer alternative recovery prospects for creditors.
