UK Debt Statistics from Credit Action – April 2011

Total UK personal debt

Total UK personal debt at the end of February 2011 stood at £1,454bn. The twelve-month growth rate remained unchanged at 0.7%. Individuals currently owe more than the entire country produced during the whole of 2010.

Total lending in February 2011 rose by £2.0bn; secured lending increased by £1.2bn in the month; consumer credit lending increased by £0.8bn (total lending in Jan 2008 grew by £8.4bn).

Total secured lending on dwellings at the end of February 2011 stood at £1,242bn. The twelve-month growth rate remained unchanged at 0.7%.

Total consumer credit lending to individuals at the end of February 2011 was £212bn. The annual growth rate of consumer credit rose 0.3 percentage points to 1.1%.

UK banks and building societies wrote off £9.7bn of loans to individuals in the 4 quarters to end Q4 2010. In Q4 2010 they wrote off £2.27bn (£1.18m of that was credit card debt). This amounts to a write-off of £24.88m a day.

Average household debt in the UK is ~ £8,428 (excluding mortgages). This figure increases to £16,207 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 ~ £57,697 (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 £109,919 per household.

Today in the UK

  • 337 people every day of the year will be declared insolvent or bankrupt. This is equivalent to 1 person every 59 seconds during a working day.
  • 1,603 Consumer County Court Judgements (CCJs) were issued every day during Q4 2010 and the average judgement amount was £3,245. 
  • The average person will save £2.73 every day.
  • Citizen Advice Bureaux dealt with 8,004 new debt problems every working day in England and Wales
  • The average cost of raising a child from birth to the age of 21 is £27.50 a day.
  • 1,000 people are seeking some form of formal debt rescheduling every working day.
  • 87 properties were repossessed every day during Q4 2010
  • 455 new people became unemployed for more than 12 months every day during the 12 months to end January 2011
  • 1,545 people reported they had become redundant every day during 3 months to end January 2011
  • £188,200,000 is the amount that the Government Public Sector Net Debt (PSDN), including financial interventions, will grow today (equivalent to £2,178 per second).
  • £121,940,000 is the interest the Government has to pay each day on the UKs net debt of £2252.1bn (which includes financial interventions). This is estimated to rise to £182m a day in 2015-16.
  • 212 mortgage possession claims will be issued and 163 mortgage possession orders will be made today
  • 377 landlord possession claims will be issued and 251 landlord possession orders will be made today.
  • The UK population is projected to grow by 1,178 people a day over the next decade
  • 24.1m plastic card purchase transactions will be made today with a total value of £1.156bn.
  • 7.7m cash withdrawals will be made today with a total value of £528m
  • The average car will cost £16.08 to run today
  • It costs £66.45 on average to fill a car with a 50 litre tank with unleaded petrol.

Compiled monthly by John Davies (johndavies@creditaction.org.uk).