Debt is nothing to be ashamed of in today's climate. You are not the only one to have fallen into the clutches of debt brought about by the false sense of economic security of the last decade:

 

Total UK personal debt at the end of June 2011 stood at £1,451bn.

Individuals currently owe nearly as much as the entire country produced between Q2 2010 to Q1 2011.

Total lending in June 2011 rose by £0.4bn;

secured lending decreased by £0.1bn in the month;

consumer credit lending increased by £0.4bn (total lending in Jan 2008 grew by £8.4bn).

 

Homes put in jeopardy through debt

Total secured lending on dwellings at the end of June 2011 stood at £1,241bn.

The twelve-month growth rate remained unchanged at 0.7%.

Total consumer credit lending to individuals at the end of June 2011 was £210bn.

The annual growth rate of consumer credit increased 0.3 percentage points to 1.8%.

 

Banks are suffering from debt too (honestly!)

UK banks and building societies wrote off £9.5bn of loans to individuals in the 4 quarters to end Q1 2011.

In Q1 2011 they wrote off £1.89bn (£866m of that was credit card debt). This amounts to a write-off of £20.71m a day.

 

Average Household Debt in the UK

Average household debt in the UK is ~ £8,064 (excluding mortgages). This figure increases to £15,507 if the average is based on the number of households who actually have some form of unsecured loan. Average household debt in the UK is ~ £55,803 (including mortgages). If you add to this the March 2010 budget report figure for public sector net debt (PSND) expected in 2015-16 (excluding financial interventions) then this figure rises to £106,418 per household.

Average owed by every UK adult is ~ £29,536 (including mortgages). This is 123% of average earnings. Average outstanding mortgage for the 11.4m households who currently have mortgages now stands at ~ £109,032.

 

(Official figures provided by Credit Action)