- The proportion of people expressing worries about debt who are also unemployed has increased by 25% this year (according to ClearDebt data).
- I believe this will increase at a faster rate in the coming months.
- This trend will probably continue to rise after employment begins to grow.
Having noticed lots of noise on Twitter earlier about UK unemployment, I investigated the data collated here at ClearDebt, my employer.
The results made grim reading: We’ve had 7,175 people complete our debt advice questionaire so far this year and 12% of them were unemployed (despite the fact that the website makes it crystal clear that at least one of the solutions on offer is seldom suitable for people who are out of work).
Trouble is I think this is the tip of the iceberg. Debt is a lagging indicator and many people continue in a state of denial as soon as they realise they are struggling – it can take months, nay years, before they take action on debt. And, in this case, redundancy is going to afflict the prudent impecunious as well as the spendthrift – so there are people out there, right now, who are filling up the credit cards they didn’t need when times were good and who have not yet realised they won’t be able to pay it all back.
The sky will be black with chickens coming home to roost – but not yet.
