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Rising tide of debt

Laura Thistlethwaite
14/ 8/2008

THE number of people struggling with debt in Manchester has soared in the last year, a special investigation by the Reporter has revealed.

Debt experts are dealing with twice as many cases -- 16,000 -- compared to last year.

The Citizens Advice Bureau says that growing numbers of people are increasingly unable to pay heating and electricity bills, council tax and mortgage payments.

The charity’s specialist debt team, based in the city centre, dealt with more than 16,000 cases in 2007/2008 compared to 7,800 cases for the year before. Marsha Healy, debt service manager for Manchester District CAB, said: "We now have a dedicated debt service which was created in response to the increase in demand from people experiencing severe financial problems.

"We dealt with 16,008 new debt issues involving £7 million pounds of debt. This doubling in debt problems involves a specific increase in people struggling with priority debts, like utilities and council tax, and a doubling of enquiries regarding mortgage arrears."

Withington CAB branch manager Louis Basi said the main remit of their work has now become finance-related enquiries.

"There is no common type of debt, we get the full range. There are a lot of clients who come in unable to pay gas and electric bills, but we are getting more and more issues relating to mortgage arrears, credit cards and loans," he said. "People are often nervous and don’t know what to do because they aren’t sure about what their rights are. We still deal with many of the smaller debt problems here in Withington, but tend to refer larger ones to the specialists."

Earlier this year, Manchester was dubbed the "debt capital of Britain" in a report by credit reference agency Experian.

The results of the survey showed that 29 per cent of households in the city said they were experiencing high levels of financial stress. Manchester CAB Debt Service can be contacted on 0161 834 9057, or at Swan Buildings, 20 Swan Street, Manchester.