The government has announced it is to spend £45m on employing 500 debt advisors over the next two years, saying that it was vital for people with debt problems to get independent advice rather than risk falling prey to loan sharks.
Observer editor Will Hutton wrote a piece this week about the difficulties younger people have making ends meet, and the worrying levels of debt many are getting into.
One of the largest surveys of its kind has revealed that two million UK households could be plunged into serious financial difficulty if the economy took a turn for the worse, and that half a million households are already struggling despite low interest rates and high employment.
A report by insurance company AXA estimates that up to 2 million Britons have had their sex lives affected by money worries, with women twice as likely to see financial troubles kill their libidos.
New research on the levels of UK consumer debt has been released by analyst group Mintel, highlighting both the worrying amount of debt many people are in, and the even more worrying lack of concern many people have about their borrowing.
It’s often reported in the media that UK debt is at record levels, and that excess availability of credit is a major problem. Just how far in debt are we as a nation, and is the situation as bleak as it’s often painted?
New figures from the Bank of England show that consumers turned to credit again in January, although the rate at which debt is growing is slowing down.
A survey by credit monitoring service MyCallcredit suggests that secret debts are not the relationship-killer that they may once have been, with only one in 10 of those surveyed saying that they would consider ending a relationship if they discovered their partner had secretly built up debts.