Brits ‘ignore debt problems’ over Christmas

Britons with debt management problems tend to ignore their situations over the Christmas period, which may mean that debt enquiries climb in the new year.

This is the opinion of Chris Jenkins of the Homeowners Advice Centre, who made his comments following recent repossession statistics from Property Portfolio Rescue.

In October, the organisation predicted that, in the third quarter of 2010, the number of people losing their homes will rise to 18,392 and Mr Jenkins observed that enquiries tend to spike in the early months of any given year.

This, he said, is because “a lot of people tend to bury their head coming up to Christmas because they have something to look forward to [and] presents to save for”.

Mr Jenkins went on to note that homeowner difficulties could also be exacerbated as a result of unemployment and the threat of redundancy, which could see repossession figures climb in 2010.

By Sarah Adie