Brits owe “substantial” amounts

Many Britons owe “substantial” amounts of money in areas such as credit card debt, it has been noted.

A spokesperson from Citizens Advice stated that more people are turning to the charity for help with money problems, such as “day-to-day” household bills and consumer debt.

“When credit was easy to come by … a lot of people took on credit commitments they are now struggling with,” she remarked.

She noted that rising levels of job losses may serve to worsen the problem, as many people may experience “severe drops in income”.

The representative was commenting on the release of a report from Citizens Advice entitled ‘A life in debt’, which warned of a growing crisis in the UK.

This showed that in 2008, over half of the organisation’s clients had four or more ‘priority’ debts, such as fuel bills, council tax, mortgage repayments or rent arrears.

By Jamie Price