Personal Debt approaches £1.5 trillion

Personal debt is now standing at £1.46 trillion according to Credit Action, the debt charity.

However, although the amount appears on the surface to be yet another eye-watering statistic, the figure covers £1.23 trillion which is secured against property (this property stock stays fairly steady at about £6 trillion ... over 4 x the indebtedness). Also, the headline figure went up by 1% year on year.

Current figures have kicked out an average debt per capita of just over £8,750 (excluding mortgages). Including mortgages, that figure shoots up to just under £58,000.

Current forecasts hint at a figure in excess of £113,000 by 2015. For the 11 million mortgagees out there, they owe an average £30,000 representing 126% of annual income. Perhaps more worrying, the average household personal debt on credit cards, personal loans - ie unsecured finance stands at £4,500. Extrapolate out households without any unsecured debt and that figure grows exponentially. We can’t be complacent.

Most European countries, even those in crisis, do not have personal debt figures of this order. Bear in mind the already flagged up public sector redundancies and the inevitable knock on into the private sector, and a 1% rise can be seen as a target, but the eventual figure could be considerably higher.