A new report from Pricewaterhouse Coopers has found that the total debt on secured and unsecured lending, stood at £6.6 trillion at the end of June this year, which is around £23,000 for each adult. At present it is estimated that 6% of consumers owe more than their entire gross salary on unsecured debt. The report also shows people who enter into individual voluntary arrangements owe an average of £60,000 to 11 creditors on credit cards and other unsecured borrowing. The company examined over a thousand individual voluntary arrangements and found that three quarters of debtors say their difficulty is living beyond their means, rather than unavoidable events such as divorce or unemployment, which has in the past been thought of as the primary cause of bad debts.
Our view:
Staggering! The Government needs to introduce legislation to force lenders into offering responsible lending much in the same as Mortgage lenders are now required to do.