Brits in Debt Denial...
07 September 2007
Two thirds of people in debt in the UK are in denial about their financial situation, new research has revealed.
According to debt management specialist Chiltern, one in 16 people in the UK spends more than 25 per cent of their wages on paying off unsecured debts each month.
However, of these only one in 45 admitted that their finances were seriously overstretched.
People aged between 35 and 44-years-old are the most overindebted - with East Anglians highlighted as the worst offenders for being deluded about the state of their finances.
Chiltern's Joanne Gill said: "There are lots of people who are officially overindebted, but two-thirds of them don’t think they have a problem.
"Unfortunately debts don't go away, they need to be repaid and ignoring them will just make the situation worse."
She added: "Anyone who is paying a quarter of their income to service unsecured debts should get help to put those repayments on a sustainable footing before the situation gets worse."
Nearly seven per cent of men against six per cent of women admitted their finances were overstretched, with a quarter of their salary allocated to paying off debts each month.
