Married Brits risking debt?

Potential debt problems may arise for those Britons who are married, as a new report has revealed they are paying more tax than their counterparts in other countries.

Conducted by the Christian social policy charity Care, the study Tax Burden on Families has indicated that married couples with kids who earn up to £33,000 a year are paying nearly one-third more in tax in this country than elsewhere, 18 per cent higher than the average in the European Union.

Co-author of the survey Leonard Beighton noted that the current system does not consider families.

“It sees taxpayers as individuals, regardless of their family circumstances,” he continued, adding that this is “immensely damaging to the social fabric of the country”.

Meanwhile, it was recently shown that the self-employed may also be at risk of debt issues, as the Consumer Credit Counselling Service recorded a 78 per cent increase in the number of phone calls from such people between December 2009 and January 2010.

By Sarah Adie