Charity warns of debt problem crisis

Charity warns of debt problem crisis

The human cost of Britain's borrowing binge was underlined by figures showing the number of people contacting Citizens Advice with debt problems has soared by 74% in the past seven years.

The charity said the problem of personal debt "is reaching crisis levels".

Its figures come two days after a committee of MPs heard how Scott Smith, a 21-year-old deaf man from Catfield, Norfolk, killed himself after running up five-figure debts on credit cards and personal loans.

Total net lending to individuals recently broke through the £1 trillion mark, and there has been a surge in the numbers of people going bankrupt and the amount of debt being chased by bailiffs.

Citizens Advice said 706,700 consumer debt problems were dealt with in 2003/4 compared with 671,000 the previous year and 405,800 in 1996/7. These included issues relating to credit card debt, car loans and personal loans.

Over the past year the charity's bureaux have dealt with almost 1.1m debt-related issues - a figure that also included housing, utilities and benefits-related debts.

"But consumer debt is by far the biggest type of debt problem for which people come for help, and it is increasing more than other types of debt problem - by over 35,000 in the last year alone," said a spokeswoman.

This type of debt accounted for two-thirds of all debt-related issues seen by bureaux last year.

Citizens Advice chief executive David Harker said the credit.....continued below

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boom of recent years had brought advantages to many people.

"But it is clear that others have found it harder to control their borrowing and have ended up in debt."

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