1.7 million households request help with debt

Requests for help from households overwhelmed with debts have soared by 20 per cent in the past year, figures from Citizens Advice show.

The organisation received 1.7 million different inquiries about how to deal with mounting debts in the year to April, a record. The debt caseload now makes up one third of all its work and the organisation has almost run out of trained debt advisers.

Problems with debts run up on credit card and store cards dominate, accounting for almost half of all debt inquiries. However, Citizens Advice said that there was also a sharp rise in problems over day-to-day living expenses. Inquiries on how to handle gas and electricity arrears were up by a third, while queries about council tax debt rose by a quarter.

Citizens Advice said that the surge in calls for help was evidence that the lengthy consumer boom was taking its toll. It fears that the banking credit crunch will mean even more households falling into severe debt.

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