Debt Problems rising amongst Scottish
Citizen’s Advice Scotland has raised concern over mounting debt problems, with consumer debt being the biggest issue that advice was sought for during the past year.
The Citizen’s Advice annual report showed a 14 per cent increase in debt related issues over the past year. Debt related enquiries made up 30 per cent of 976,989 enquiries handled by advisors during 2008-9.
Despite recent talk of ‘green shoots’ in the economy, Citizen’s Advice Scotland warn that the outlook is bleak for many. There was a 16 per cent increase in enquiries from new clients, with debt related advice being given on redundancy and debt, repayments on loans, benefits and rising living costs.
Kaliani Lyle, Chief Executive of Citizen’s Advice Scotland warned that the recession is affecting more and more people right across Scotland as well as in other areas of the UK.
“Debt, redundancy, housing problems, concerns about benefits, legal issues: all of these are going through the roof because the most vulnerable people in society are seeing their incomes fall, while prices rise and credit sources dry up. And for them, it is about to get worse before it gets better.”
The largest rise in enquiries was a 19 per cent rise for advice surrounding legal problems, including bank and earnings arrestments and sequestration. Social security benefit issues also rose by 10 per cent, making up over a quarter of the total enquiries.
A spokesperson for the Scottish Government advised that ministers were working closely with debt support institutions such as Citizen’s Advice Scotland, in order to make sure that advice was readily available to families in need of debt advice.
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