Citizens Advice Receiving Increased Debt Enquiries
As the current recession and general economic slow down continues to takes its toll on many individuals in the UK with homeowner loans, credit cards, personal loans and other debts, a growing number of people are seeking impartial advice on their best course of action to deal with their financial problems.
As a result of this, the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) has seen a dramatic increase in the number of enquiries it receives, with particular regard to concerns over loan arrears, being able to maintain the repayments on their homeowner loan, as well as worries over job security and the probability of unemployment.
Over the course of the past twelve months, CAB has seen an increase in enquiries from people with debt problems on their loans of around 11 per cent, with a total of 1.93 million new enquiries. The agency also saw an increase of 114 per cent in redundancy enquiries, a 49 per cent increase in arrears enquiries on homeowner loans and secured loans, 24 per cent increase in bankruptcy worries as well as seeing and increase in arrears on utility bills such as council tax and gas and electric bills.
A recent survey of CAB enquiries has shown that, on average, the typical person with debt worries owes around £16,971 on various loans and credit cards and with the majority of these people only receiving a low level of income, it is estimated that it would take around 93 years for them to repay the debt in full at affordable amounts each month.
David Harker of CAB said “These new figures show the human impact of the recession as more people are coming to the Citizens Advice service for help. In particular we are seeing an enormous rise in the number of people turning to us for help because they have lost their job, or are struggling with debts or having problems keeping up with their mortgages.”
