Austerity has fuelled a personal debt boom caused by low incomes and wages

It is well known that economic growth has still been excessively reliant on households, despite the unprecedented falls in real earnings of recent years.

Today the Trades Union Congress publishes analysis that shows just how heavy pressures on some households have become.

The Britain in the Red report, by Damon Gibbons of the Centre for Responsible Credit, shows 1.6 million households are in extreme problem debt defined as paying more than 40 per cent of their gross income on unsecured debt payments.

Most worryingly, extreme problem debt is rising particularly quickly for low income households that are in work.

These pressures do not come as the resu…

Read the full article at: https://leftfootforward.org/2016/08/want-to-help-1-6-million-households-in-extreme-debt-raise-their-incomes/