Consumers ‘increasingly’ worried about debt

A growing number of people are concerned about debt, according to new figures.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) conducted a poll that found 15 per cent of people say this area is their biggest worry at the moment, an increase of five percentage points year-on-year.

This is despite anxiety over inflation, job security and the economy as a whole being down and the BRC and Nielsen’s Consumer Confidence Index being up ten points on April.

Commenting on the data, BRC director general Stephen Robertson suggested consumer outlook is still low and that it has only been improving slowly on last year, when the financial situation was “dire”.

“These figures suggest it will be a long, slow climb out of recession for many customers but some do now have their feet on the first rung of the ladder,” he remarked.

Excluding mortgages, the average UK household owes £9,161 to creditors, according to the latest Credit Action statistics.

By Chris Trimble