Figures which were published recently (source: Credit Action) indicate that the public in the UK are still having trouble keeping control of their finances and letting debts spiral upward. As an individual the average Briton faces inflation and recession and this can compound an existing debt problem or a situation where a person was previously 'making ends meet' but now finds their bank balance in the red.
The research carried out by Credit Action revealed that average debt that a household owns not including mortgages, increased for a second time. As an average rising by nearly twenty pounds in March based on a comparison of month by month numbers. While this number seems insignificant the total of this 'average' increase when multiplied by the number of households in the UK puts this increase at close to half a billion pounds.
February originally offered positive news, the numbers showing a decrease in unsecured lending, it didn't have much impact on the rise in personal debt.
Figures from previous years showed that personal debt looked like it was successfully being controlled by consumers/individuals in the UK, with figures for debts reducing or at least not showing a worrying upward trend month after month since January 2010.
Now that the UK is in the grip of the double-dip recession once again people are finding that their money simply isn't going as far as it once did. Looking at the overall rise of the half billion pounds, if we then consider the mortgages that many of us have to cope with these, as a collective, have caused an increase of one point two billion pounds ( £1.2b ) together they add to a national rise of one point six billion pounds. All of these fantastical figures mean that the total debt problem for the UK rose to £1.458 trillion in March.
That looks like this...
£1,458,000,000.00
The numbers are less baffling if we look at what can be considered the average household rising from just less than sixty-two and a half thousand ( £62,458.00 ) to slightly over sixty-two and a half thousand ( £62,529.00). So at a personal level that's a monthly gain of about seventy pounds ( £73 ).
“Based on figures for the first three months of the year, it certainly seems as if the burden of consumer credit debt has started to increase,” “Whilst debt isn't necessarily a bad thing in itself, it can quickly become a very serious problem if you're unable to pay it back.” “It's absolutely crucial for consumers to be on top of their money, particularly given the fact that we're now in a double-dip recession,”
-Michelle Highman, CEO of Credit Action.
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