National Debt Statistics June 2012

Credit Action have released their latest personal debt statistics which shows detailed information into personal debt levels at the beginning of the second quarter in 2012.

Outstanding personal debt stood at £1.459 trillion at the end of April 2012. This is up from £1.451 trillion at the end of March 2011 with individuals owed nearly as much as the entire country produced during the whole of 2011.

Outstanding secured (mortgage) lending stood at £1.252 trillion at the end of April 2012 which is up from £1.240 trillion at the end of April 2011.

Outstanding unsecured (consumer credit) lending stood at £207 billion at the end of April 2012. This is down from £210 billion at the end of April 2011.

Average household debt in the UK (excluding mortgages) was £7,880 in April. This is down from a revised £7,905 in March. Average household debt in the UK (including mortgages) was £55,483 in April. This is up from a revised £55,441 in March.

The average amount owed per UK adult (including mortgages) was £29,706 in April. This was around 122% of average earnings.

Average consumer borrowing (including credit cards, motor and retail finance deals, overdrafts and unsecured loans) per UK adult was £4,219 in April.

The estimated average outstanding mortgage for the 11.3m households that carry mortgage debt stood at £111,218 in April.

Based on April 2012 trends, the UK’s total interest repayments on personal debt over a 12 month period would have been £63.0 billion.

• This is equivalent to £172 million per day.
• This means that UK households would have paid an average of £2,396 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 £1.4 billion in total in April 2012.

• Net secured lending rose by £1.1 billion in the month.
• Net consumer credit lending rose by £0.3 billion.

UK Banks and Building Societies wrote-off £6.3 billion of loans to individuals over the 4 quarters to Q1 2012.

• In Q1 2012 itself they wrote-off £1.28 billion (of which £568 million was credit card debt) amounting to a daily write-off of £14.03m.

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.
• 105 properties are repossessed every day (based on Q1 2012 trends).
• 182 mortgage possession claims are issued and 141 mortgage possession orders are made every day.
• 400 landlord possession claims are issued and 277 landlord possession orders are made every day.