UK Debt Statistics from Credit Action

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May 2012

£55,436

was the average household debt (including mortgages) in March

£172m

was the daily amount of interest paid on personal debt in March

8,518

new debt problems were dealt with by the CAB each working day over the year to December

1,907 people

people were made redundant every day between December and February

883,000

people had been unemployed for over a year between December and February

£16.23m

of loans are written-off daily by UK Banks and Building Societies

Every 15 min 28 sec

a property is repossessed

Every 4 min 35 sec

someone will be declared insolvent or bankrupt

£1.501 billion

was the daily value of all plastic card purchases made in February

Statistical Note: This month we started using a new estimate for the number of households in the UK. As a result some statistics may appear to have changed a lot if compared to last month, but this does not reflect any underlying trend.

UK Personal Debt

Outstanding personal debt stood at £1.458 trillion at the end of March 2012.

  • This is up from £1.451 trillion at the end of March 2011.
  • Individuals owed nearly as much as the entire country produced during the whole of 2011.

Outstanding secured (mortgage) lending stood at £1.250 trillion at the end of March 2012.

  • This is up from £1.240 trillion at the end of March 2011.

Outstanding unsecured (consumer credit) lending stood at £208 billion at the end of March 2012.

  • This is down from £211 billion at the end of March 2011.

Average household debt in the UK (excluding mortgages) was £7,903 in March.

  • up from a revised £7,884 in February.

Average household debt in the UK (including mortgages) was £55,436 in March.

  • This is up from a revised £55,384 in February.

The average amount owed per UK adult (including mortgages) was £29,681 in March. This was around 123% of average earnings.

Average consumer borrowing (including credit cards, motor and retail finance deals, overdrafts and unsecured loans) per UK adult was £4,231 in March.

The estimated average outstanding mortgage for the 11.2m households that carry mortgage debt stood at £111,419 in March.

Based on March 2012 trends, the UK's total interest repayments on personal debt over a 12 month period would have been £62.8 billion.This means that UK households would have paid an average of £2,387 in annual interest repayments.

  • This is equivalent to £172 million per day.
  • This means that UK households would have paid an average of £2,387 in annual interest repayments.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) predicts that total household debt will reach £2.044 trillion in Q1 2017.

  • This would mean that average household debt would reach £77,719 (assuming that the number of households in the UK remained the same between now and Q1 2017).

Net lending by UK Banks and Building Societies rose by £1.6 billion in total in February 2012.

  • Net lending by UK Banks and Building Societies rose by £1.4 billion in total in March 2012. N
  • et secured lending rose by £1.0 billion in the month.
  • Net consumer credit lending rose by £0.4 billion.

UK Banks and Building Societies wrote-off £6.9 billion of loans to individuals over the 4 quarters to Q4 2011.

  • In Q4 2011 itself they wrote-off £1.48 billion (of which £907 million was credit card debt) amounting to a daily write-off of £16.23m.

Every Day in the UK

Based on the latest available data, Credit Action estimates that every day in the UK:

  • 314 people are declared insolvent or bankrupt every day (based on Q1 2012 trends). This is equivalent to 1 person every 63 seconds during each working day.
  • 1,473 Consumer County Court Judgements (CCJs) are issued every day (based on Q4 2011 trends). The average value of a Consumer CCJ in Q4 2011 was £2,949.
  • Citizens Advice Bureaux in England and Wales dealt with 8,518 new debt problems every working day during the year ending December 2011.
  • It costs an average of £28.44 per day to raise a child from birth to the age of 21.
  • 93 properties are repossessed every day (based on Q4 2011 trends).
  • 104 new people a day became unemployed for over 12 months during the year ending February 2012.
  • 1,907 people a day reported they had become redundant between December 2011 and February 2012.
  • The Government's Public Sector Net Debt (including financial interventions) will fall by an average of £189,100,000 today, equivalent to £2,188 per second (based on March 2012 data).
  • The Government pays an estimated £128,690,000 of interest each day on the UK's Public Sector Net Debt of £2181.0bn (including financial interventions).
  • 196 mortgage possession claims are issued and 149 mortgage possession orders are made every day
  • 388 landlord possession claims are issued and 275 landlord possession orders are made every day.
  • The UK population is growing by an estimated 1,342 people a day.
  • 0.4m plastic card purchase transactions were made every day in February 2012 with a total value of £1.501 billion.
  • 8.1m cash withdrawals will be made daily with a total value of £547m (based on Q4 2011 trends).
  • The average car costs £18.33 per day to run.
  • It cost £71.25 to fill a 50 litre tank with unleaded petrol in April.

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

Extracts of these debt statistics and figures may be reproduced subject to the following conditions:

  • No commercial or financial gain is made from the reproduction.
  • Acknowledgement of Credit Action as the provider of the information is mentioned in the reproduction.

Where the above criteria cannot be realised, application should be made to Credit Action.