Wednesday 8th of December 2010
People who are worried about the prospect of being made redundant in the new year may decide to start asking individual voluntary arrangement questions in a bid to resolve any debt problems they currently have.
Research carried out by insolvency firm R3 for its quarterly debt tracker found that in the last three-month period of the year, the number of Brits anxious at the possibility of losing their job increased by 50 per cent.
Those aged between 25 and 34 were most likely to express worries, with one is six people in this range saying they were concerned.
According to the report, over four million individuals are now troubled by the thought they will be unemployed.
In addition, the investigation found that 3,785,544 people have admitted they are struggling to meet their bill repayments each month.
Over the last quarter of the year more than three million individuals have taken on a greater amount of debt, while 27 per cent of individuals said they were saving less than usual.
"These figures make grim reading. The number of people who have admitted to struggling has rocketed over the last three months, but this is just the tip of the iceberg," said R3 president Steven Law.
"The high level of concern amongst those aged between 25 and 34 may reflect their fear that they are more dispensable as they are less experienced," he noted.
Mr Law added he found it "startling" that those Brits who believed their jobs may be at risk are talking on more debt and the decline in people saving may be a result of the current low interest rates.
A separate recent investigation carried out by the insolvency firm found there has been a seven per cent increase in the number of people expecting their economic position to deteriorate in the first half of 2011, up to 30 per cent.
By Ashley Littley
