UK Debt: November 2023 statistics

Snapshot of UK debt November 2023

• Inflation rate falls to 4.6% in the year to October 2023
• Average credit card debt per household stood at £2,409 in September 2023 which is an increase from the previous month
• The average total debt per household is £65,724 in September 2023 
• Total unsecured debt stands at £4,109 per adult in September 2023 which has slightly increased
• 0.3% increase in the average first time buyer house price to the year to September 2023

UK Personal Debt

Remember that you can view the statistics from last month here in order to compare with the November 2023 debt statistics.

• The average total debt per household, including mortgages, was £65,724 or £34,700 per adult. This is around 100.7% of average earnings
• 262 people per day were declared bankrupt or insolvent in England and Wales from July to September. This equates to one person every 5 minutes and 30 seconds
• The Citizens Advice Bureau dealt with 992 debt issues every day during September
• 6.7 properties were repossessed every day in April to June, which was one every 3 hours and 35 minutes
• 1,109 people a day reported they had become redundant between May and July
• Government debt increased by £442 million per day in the three months to October 2023
• The number of people unemployed increased by 658 per day in the year to July 2023
• The UK population shrunk by an estimated 151 people per day between 2020 and 2021

The statistics this month are headlining with the fact that UK households are experiencing modest relief from the ongoing cost of living crisis due to the falling inflation rate and lower government deficit.

This may give some hope for the future, especially heading into 2024, but we cannot forget what the previous months have been like and the devastating impact that the crisis has had on UK households, as described in last month’s post.

What UK households can take from this month’s statistics is that there are hopeful indications for next year. The government has achieved their target to bring down inflation below 5.4% by the year’s end which means that whilst prices are still rising, the rate at which they rise has slowed. Reports also show that housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuel rates are actively falling. Gas has fallen by 31% and electricity by 15.6%. This sounds amazing however we have to remember that prices are still around 60% higher than they were two years ago.

A lower deficit than was expected also gives hope. This has been helped by higher tax receipts which reflect higher wages and inflation. However we need to remember that certain tax thresholds were frozen in the Autumn Statement, which means that millions were pushed into the higher tax threshold without receiving a pay increase.

The statistics for this month may show hope, but they have also illustrated just how turbulent the financial market is. In the grand scheme of the past couple of years, this hope is only a very small slither and presently, there are still millions of households across the UK that are struggling. To illustrate, it has been reported that The Trussell Trust provided 1.5 million food parcels between April and September this year. This was a record high for this period and a 16% increase from last year.

If the past year has had a negative impact on your financial situation, or you are facing increasing debt costs over the next few months, feel free to call us for a discussion on what debt solutions could be available to suit your personal situation.