Problem debt takes 77 years to pay off

It now takes an entire lifetime to pay off problem debts at affordable rates, a new report reveals.

Citizens Advice reveals today the average person coming to them for help owes some £13,153 - a sum of money that would take 77 years to pay off at a rate they can actually afford.

This sum is up by almost a third compared with three years ago, and is equivalent to 17-and-a-half times their monthly household income.

And as well the amount owed, the number of people in trouble is increasing.

In the last eight years the number of people with consumer credit debt problems coming to Citizens Advice has doubled, with close to a million cases recorded in the last year.

“Low income, combined with badly informed and poorly understood financial decisions are at the root of many of our clients’ debt problems,” said Citizens Advice chief executive David Harker.

“For many there is little prospect of their income increasing or their circumstances changing. The reality is that they are condemned to a lifetime of poverty overshadowed by an inescapable burden of unpayable debt.

“They need to be given some hope that they can turn things around, with a solution that offers them a fresh start, lifts them out of the poverty trap, and gives them a chance to build better financial skills for the future.”