Archbishop calls for action over ‘debt crisis’

The Archbishop of Canterbury has called on the government to address the debt management crisis that is impacting millions of people around the UK.

Dr Rowan Williams instigated a debate in the House of Lords to highlight some of the debt-related issues causing British families considerable hardship.

He said that more needs to be done to make sure that fewer people find themselves entering an unstoppable spiral of debt management difficulties and that the government ought to spearhead the process.

“Because of a variety of problems around debt and credit, children in poverty are in fact caught in a particularly toxic version of the poverty trap,” he said.

“There is an urgent case for more support for financial education in schools,” the archbishop added.

A report from Abbey Banking recently suggested that more than one in five British children aged between 11 and 15 are already afraid of being in debt and facing financial hardships in their adult lives.