a. In relation to your creditors

If you are made bankrupt, you must not make payments direct to creditors. Creditors to whom you owe money when you are made bankrupt make a claim to your trustee (that is, either the Official Receiver or an insolvency practitioner). They should not ask you directly for payment; if you receive any requests, pass them immediately to your trustee to deal with and tell the creditor that you are bankrupt. There are some very limited exceptions to this non-payment rule. The main ones are:

Suppliers of services to your home (gas, electricity, water and telephone) may not demand from you payment of bills in your name which are unpaid at the date of the bankruptcy order. But they may ask you for a deposit towards payment for further supplies or could arrange for the accounts to be transferred into the name of your spouse or partner.

You must pay continuing commitments such as rent (if you rent your home), together with any debts you incur after the bankruptcy.

b. Your assets
You will no longer control your assets.
You can keep the following items unless their individual value is more than the cost of a reasonable replacement:
l.           tools, books, vehicles and other items of equipment which you need to use personally in your employment, business or vocation;
2.         clothing, bedding, furniture, household equipment and other basic items you and your family need in the home.
All these items must be disclosed to the Official Receiver who will then decide whether you can keep them.
The Official Receiver/trustee will take control of all your other assets on the making of the bankruptcy order. He or she, or any insolvency practitioner who is appointed as trustee, will dispose of them and use the money to pay the fees, costs and expenses of the bankruptcy and then your creditors.
The trustee may apply to the court for an order restoring property to him or her if you disposed of it in a way which was unfair to your creditors (for example, if before bankruptcy you had transferred property to a relative for less than its worth). The trustee may claim property which you obtain or which passes to you (for example, under a will) while you are bankrupt.
A student loan made before or after the start of a student's bankruptcy is not regarded as an asset that the trustee may claim, if a balance of the loan remains payable.

c. Your pension

A trustee cannot usually claim a pension as an asset if your bankruptcy petition was presented on or after 29 May 2000, as long as the pension scheme has been approved by the Inland Revenue.
For petitions presented before 29 May 2000, trustees can claim some kinds of pensions. A separate leaflet called “What will happen to my pension?” is available from your local Official Receiver’s office or The Insolvency Service Publications Order Line (address on back cover).
If you are receiving a pension or become entitled to do so before you are discharged, the pension is included as income for the purposes of an income payments order (IPO) (see section 7g).

d. Your life assurance policy

Generally, your trustee will be able to claim any interest that you have in a life assurance policy. The trustee may be entitled to sell or surrender the policy and collect any proceeds on behalf of your creditors. If the life assurance policy is held in joint names, for instance with your husband or wife, that other person is likely to have an interest in the policy and should contact the trustee immediately to discuss how their interest in the policy should be dealt with.
You may want the policy to be kept going. Ask your trustee: it may be possible for your interest to be transferred for an amount equivalent to the present value of that interest.
If the life assurance policy has been legally charged to any person, for instance an endowment policy used as security for the mortgage on your home, the rights of the secured creditor will not be affected by the making of the bankruptcy order. But any remaining value in the policy may belong to your trustee.

e. Work-related registrations, licences and permissions

Any registration, licence or permission you hold in connection with your work or trade might be affected by the making of the bankruptcy order. You should inform the person who issued the registration or authority of your bankruptcy to establish if it will remain in force or will be cancelled or withdrawn. Any value attaching to these items may belong to the trustee.
In considering this issue you should disregard items of a personal nature such as a driving licence.

f. Your business

If you are self-employed, your business is normally closed down and any employees are dismissed. Any business assets will be claimed by the trustee unless they are exempt (see section 7b) and you will have to give the Official Receiver all your accounting records. You are still responsible for completing all tax and VAT returns.
Your employees may be able to make a claim to the National Insurance Fund for outstanding wages and holiday pay, payment in lieu of notice, and redundancy. Employees can claim in the bankruptcy for any money owed that is not paid by the National Insurance Fund.

For further details, you should contact the Redundancy Payments Service on 0845 145 0004.

There is nothing to prevent a bankrupt from being self-employed. So you can start to trade again, subject to the restrictions in section 10. You will be responsible for keeping accounting records for this business and for dealing with the tax and VAT requirements for the new business. You will need to register again for VAT if you meet the registration requirements. You should not continue to use your pre-bankruptcy VAT registration number.

g. Your wages
Your trustee may apply to court for an income payments order (IPO), which requires you to make contributions towards the bankruptcy debts from your income. The court will not make an IPO if it would leave you without enough income to meet the reasonable domestic needs of you and your family. If you have an increase or decrease in income, the IPO can be changed.
IPO payments continue for a maximum of 3 years from the date the order is made by the court and may continue after you have been discharged from your bankruptcy. Or you may enter into a written agreement with your trustee, called an income payments agreement (IPA), to pay a certain amount of your income to the trustee for an agreed period, which cannot be longer than 3 years. There are no fixed guidelines on IPOs or IPAs - each case is assessed individually.

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