Focus on....Customer Interviews

Latest statistics from the financial education charity, Credit Action, show that 1,552 people a day reported that they had been made redundant between May and July 2012 and that £53,706 is the average household debt including mortgages.

The estimated average outstanding mortgage for the 11.2m households that carry mortgage debt stood at £111,793 in August.

The figures also tell us that the CAB are dealing with 8,465 new debt problems each working day, while 93 properties are repossessed each day. Staggeringly, in Q2 2012 UK banks and building societies wrote-off £1.15 billion (of which £567 million was credit card debt) amounting to a daily write-off of £12.52m. Click here for the full report into the UK Debt Statistics

Here at London House we interview many individuals on a daily basis on behalf of our clients in an effort to get their up to date financial position. Wherever possible we meet them at home and complete a detailed income/expenditure/assests/liabilities breakdown. If our client has asked us, we will also negotiate a repayment programme on their behalf within agreed parameters. 

You asked us

"The Credit Action Debt Statistics were published on 3rd October. Any thoughts?" 

I have touched on these figures above. Whilst there are some encouraging signs, such as the total amount of credit card debt continues to fall and outstanding unsecured consumer credit was down £9bn at £156bn on the previous year, there are still causes for concern. 

Every 15 min 30 sec a property is repossessed and every 4 min 49 sec someone will be declared insolvent or bankrupt. 904,000 people had been unemployed for over a year between May and July 2012 and total outstanding personal debt stood at £1.412 trillion at the end of August which is up from £1.407 trillion last year. These are depressing figures. 

Clearly as a country we have some way to go to get out of this gloom and reach growth as suggested by Ernst and Young. There are still some tough times ahead. 

February 2012

The latest figures for personal debt levels and industry statistics were published recently by Credit Action, the national money education charity. Again, these do not make pleasant reading and I hesitate to use the term but some of the "highlights" were:

• £55,823 was the average household debt (including mortages) in December 2011
• 8,652 new debt problems were handled by the CAB during the year to September
• 1,797 people were made redundant every day between September and November
• £15.68M of loans are written off every day by our banks and building societies
• every 14min 17sec a property is repossessed.

And now, it seems, we are entering the next dip on our recession roller coaster. To read the full report, please click here

Focus On......Customer Interviews

Latest statistics from the financial education charity, Credit Action, show that 829,000 people have been unemployed in the UK for more than 12 months and that £55,862 is the average household debt including mortgages. As consumers begin to focus on their debts and tighten their belts, the figures also tell us that the CAB are dealing with 9,072 new debt problems each working day, while 1,271 people on a daily basis are being made redundant.Staggeringly, the Banks and Building Societies are writing off £20.71m of loans every day.  

Here at London House we interview many individuals on a daily basis on behalf of our clients in an effort to get their up to date financial position. Wherever possible we meet them at home and complete a detailed income/expenditure/assests/liabilities breakdown. If our client has asked us, we will also negotiate a repayment programme on their behalf within agreed parameters.

Evidence of Means

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.