Record number of people seeking advice over debt

The Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) have reported a record number of people looking for help with unmanageable debt in the past year. The number of cases being handled by the CAB rose to an astounding 1.7 million for the year 2006/2007.

It said the level of people who needed help with debt had doubled during the past 10 years, with debt now the most common problem its bureau dealt with, overtaking benefit problems for the first time.

Debt now accounts for one in three of all enquiries that CAB receives, with the group's advisers in England and Wales dealing with more than 6,600 debt problems every working day.

Citizens Advice warned that there was no let up in the rising toll of casualties from the credit boom and recent sharp increases in the cost of living.

Credit card debt and problems with unsecured loans dominated the enquiries it received, accounting for 40% of CAB's debt caseload, with one in four debt enquiries relating to credit and store cards.

Overall, consumer credit problems rose by 14%, while problems with overdrafts and loans increased by more than 18%.

At the same time the number of people asking the group about going bankrupt soared by 50%.