Wednesday 1st of December 2010
The total level of personal debt in the UK stands at £1,452 billion - a figure that is larger than the amount of money the country produces in a year.
Figures released by Credit Action found that over the past twelve months the growth rate relating to how far the country is in the red has increased by 0.1 per cent to 0.8 per cent.
According to the report, there was a 0.4 per cent rise to 0.6 per cent in the annual growth rate of consumer credit, with the total level of this form of lending to individuals standing at £216 billion.
At the end of October this year, the overall figure loaned on dwellings was £1,236 billion – an amount that means the growth rate remained constant at 0.8 per cent.
In addition, the Credit Action report looked into the average amount a UK household is in the red by, with a typical British establishment recording debts of £8,556 when mortgages are excluded.
This rises to £17,825 if the average is decided by the number of dwellings that are currently holding an unsecured loan of some form.
When mortgages are taken into account, a typical home is £54,624 in the red. This amount increases to £108,846 per household when the budget report figure for public sector net debt from earlier this year is taken into account.
Overall, UK building societies and banks wrote off £9.9 billion that had been given to people in loan form over the last 12 months to the end of the third quarter of 2010.
During the third three-month period of the year, £1.83 billion was written off, amounting to £20.1 million a day.
Earlier this week, managing director of the Debt Advice Foundation David Rodger stated that those people who are building up an unsustainable level of debt should take action sooner rather than later, as their monetary problems are easier to deal with an early stage.
By Rachel Powell
- Debt consolidation loans falling, figures show
- Britons 'changing attitudes' towards debt management
- Homeowners 'more concerned with debt management'
- Low interest rate 'contributing to debt management efforts'
- Debt management growing in importance, survey finds
- Brits 'making savings' with debt management techniques
