Let’s take a look at the February debt statistics which have been released by The Money Charity. You can sign up to have their monthly statistics report sent to your inbox by visiting their website.
Snapshot of UK debt February 2022
- Inflation is set at 5.5% – a rise from 5.4% last month
- There has been a 0.4% per litre decrease in the price of unleaded petrol in January 2022
- Average credit card debt per household stood at £2,112 in December 2021
- The average total debt per household is £63,528 in December 2021 which is another increase
- Total unsecured debt stands at £3,745 per adult in December 2021
- 9.9% increase in the average first time buyer house price to the year to December 2021 which is an increase from 9.1% last month
UK Personal Debt
Remember that you can view the statistics from January 2022 here in order to compare with the February 2022 debt statistics.
- 286 people per day were declared bankrupt or insolvent in England and Wales from November 2021 to January 2022. This equates to one person every 5 minutes and 2 seconds
- Borrowers paid £122 million per day in interest in November 2021
- On average, a UK household spends £4.28 per day on water, electricity and gas which is a decrease from previous months, however this is expected to rise with the price cap increase next quarter
- 783 people per day were made redundant from October to December 2021
- 1,970 debt issues were dealt with daily by the Citizens Advice Bureau, with benefits, tax credits and debt being the reasons for needing advice
Households are facing soaring bills. The cost of living crisis is starting to be seen based on the recent statistics with experts in the financial fields becoming increasingly worried about what is to come.
Last month, the inflation figure had soared to 5.4% (the highest rate for nearly 30 years) and this has further increased by the end of February 2022 to 5.5%. In order to control inflation, the Bank of England raised the base interest rate from 0.25% to 0.5% which could be bad news for some borrowers already finding it difficult to repay debts.
The Money Charity also reported that 1.3 million more people are now claiming Universal Credit than at the start of the pandemic and that 1 million adults have gone an entire day without eating because they cannot afford to put a meal on the table.
Very worrying times to read this from a first world country. We are looking towards next month’s mini budget where hopefully the Chancellor will address the worsening cost of living crisis for people in the UK. (EDIT – you can read about the mini budget/Spring Statement here)
If the past year has had a negative impact on your financial situation, feel free to call us for a discussion on what debt solutions could be available to suit your personal situation.
