Record Numbers Of People Are Seeking Debt Advice

A record number of people are seeking debt advice from the Citizens Advice Bureau as the recession continues to take its toll.

Although the recession is technically over, many consumers are still facing financial difficulties.  The Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) has helped at least 3.35 million people since the start of the recession.

According to the CAB, out of the 11 million problems that it has handled during this period, 60% of the issue involve debt or benefit problems.  The CAB is handling 9,500 new debt problems and 8,200 new benefit enquiries each day.

These figures are growing at a record rate of 24% per year as consumers struggle to meet their everyday living costs.

The rising cost of living, particularly fuel costs and the increasing redundancies amongst the working population is forcing more people to approach the CAB for debt advice.

Fuel and water debts account for over 50% of the enquiries and tenants with rent arrears provide an additional 35% of the workload for CAB advisers – a point echoed by David Harker, the CAB Chief Executive, who said:

“These figures give a stark insight into the human cost of the recession, coming as they do on top of what were already record-breaking enquiry figures for the previous three months.”

“We may officially be in recovery, but for many people the damage done by the economic downturn is long-lasting and far from over. Even more people are now worried about the further pressures on their household budgets from rising prices and exceptionally high winter fuel bills.”