Younger People More Likely To Go Bankrupt
It would appear that we, in the UK have become a nation of borrowers, with debt levels through personal loans and credit and store cards reaching an all time high.
Whilst this may be all well and good when the economy is stable and people are earning good money with plenty of job security, when we hit a bad patch in the economy, as we are doing at the moment, many individuals find themselves struggling to keep up with their personal loan repayments and credit card commitments, falling behind with payments and building up arrears on their loans, in many cases leading to long term financial difficulties.
Although this situation is seen across all age groups, it would seem that the most likely people to get themselves into trouble with personal loan and credit card debt are those aged thirty and under.
The news comes in a new report published last week by the Citizen’s Advice Bureau (CAB). The charity has said that around 62,000 individuals declared themselves bankrupt over the course of last year, which shows an increase of approximately 10,000 more than the figure for 2005 and worryingly, a large proportion of these cases relate to people under the age of 30.
It seems that many young people want to have the best of everything at an early age and aren’t all that concerned about how they get it, taking out several personal loans for luxury items such as new cars and holidays and running up huge credit card debts on weekly shopping sprees, without thinking about the consequences of how they will ever repay their debts.
CAB have seen more than 50,000 individuals under the age of 25 since the start of 2008 with financial problems due to loans and cards and many view the option of bankruptcy as an easy one, without fully realising the implications for their financial future. Young people clearly need a better level of education with regard to financial matters, before they are ever allowed to take out a personal loan, or own a credit card.
