• The average household debt will increase by £1.73 today (a decrease from £11.11 a day in January 2008)

• 331 people today will be declared insolvent or bankrupt. KPMG estimate this will increase to 411 people a day throughout 2009 or 1 person becoming bankrupt or entering into an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) every 3.5 minutes.

• In the last 12 months consumers saved an average of £2.84 every day

• 2,324 Consumer County Court Judgements (CCJs) were issued every day in the last 3 months of 2008
• 142 properties were repossessed every day during the last 3 months to end March 2009. The Council of Mortgage lenders estimates this will increase to approximately 205 a day throughout 2009.
• Unemployment increased by 2,711 people every day during 3 months to end March 2009.
• 3,178 people reported they had become redundant every day during 3 months to end March 2009.
• The average house has decreased in value by £91 every day during the last 12 months.
• £103m is the interest the Government has to pay each day on the UKs net debt of £754bn. This is projected to rise to £118m a day (£43bn) in 2010 – 2011 financial year.
• 33,600 applications for credit have been turned down every day during the past six months.
• 251 mortgage possession claims will be issued and 189 mortgage possession orders will be made today
• 397 landlord possession claims will be issued and 305 landlord possession orders will be made today.
• 20.8m plastic card purchase transactions will be made today with a total value of £1.03bn.
• Citizen Advice Bureaus dealt with 7,241 new debt problems every day
• The average car will cost £16.80 to run today
• £578m will be withdrawn from cash machines today

Statistical Sources - Unless otherwise indicated statistics in the “Total UK personal debt” section are calculated by Credit Action - primarily using the Bank of England's debt figures.

There were 5.4 million working age benefit claimants at November 2008. This is an increase of 278,000 in the year to November 2008.

UK base rate fell to a 315 year low when the official bank rate was reduced by 0.5% to 0.5% on 5th March 2009. The cut means the Bank rate has fallen six times from 5% in October to the current level of 0.5%.

There were 4,941 compulsory liquidations and creditors’ voluntary liquidations in total in England and Wales in the first quarter of 2009 (on a seasonally adjusted basis). This was an increase of 7.1% on the previous quarter and an increase of 56.0% on the same period a year ago. In the twelve months ending Q1 2009, approximately 1 in 130 active companies (or 0.8%) went into liquidation, compared to the previous quarter when approximately 1 in every 150 (or 0.7%) of active companies went into liquidation. Additionally, there were 1,783 other corporate insolvencies in the first quarter of 2009 (not seasonally adjusted) comprising 316 receiverships, 1,311 administrations and 156 company voluntary arrangements. In total these represented an increase of 54.0% on the same period a year ago.

At the end of April 2009 the public sector net debt (PSND) was £754 billion, equivalent to 53.2% of gross domestic product and equivalent to ~ £30,160 per household. PSND has increased £135bn in 12 months. The interest paid on this debt by the Government in April was £3.1bn which is equivalent to ~ £1,488 per household / annum.

According to the UK 2009 Budget report the public sector net debt (PSND), including unrealised losses from financial sector interventions, increases over the period to 2013-14 to £1,446bn (equivalent to £57,840 per household) and then stabilises at around 79% of GDP.

Real GDP in the UK economy during 2009 Q1 declined by 1.9% which means that Britain has officially been in recession for nine months. The fall is the sharpest contraction in the economy since 1979 and the first time that the economy has shrunk by more than 1% in two successive quarters since records began in 1948.

The number of unemployed people increased by 244,000 (2,711 a day) to 2.215m over the quarter to March 2009. This is the highest figure in 12.5 years since November 1996. 286,000 people (3,178 a day) reported they had become redundant in the three months up 27,000 from the three months to December 2008 and up 175,000 from a year earlier.

Consumer Prices Index (CPI) annual inflation rose 2.3% in April, down from 2.9% in March. Retail Prices Index (RPI) fell from -0.4 per cent in March to -1.2 per cent in April, the lowest figure since records began in 1948.

The FTSE stood at 4418 at close of play at the end of May. This was 1,650 points lower ( - 27%) than the same time last year. Also £1 was worth $1.6126 dollars which is 36 cents lower ( - 18%) than the same time last year and £1 was worth $1.1393 euros which is 13 cents lower ( - 10%) than the same time last year.

The new car market fell for the twelfth successive month in April. New car registrations fell 24.0% in April to 133,475 units. The market has fallen by 245,184 units or 28.5% over the first four months of 2009.

UK retail sales values rose 4.6% on a like-for-like basis, and rose 6.3% on a total basis, from April 2008.

The current Government estimate (31st March 2006) of the combined liability of the unfunded public sector pension schemes is £650bn. This liability is estimated to be in the order of £1,000bn today. The annual cost to the taxpayer of the unfunded schemes is projected to increase by 40% over the next twenty years, from 1.0% of GDP (£14bn) to 1.4% of GDP in 2027/8.

The Insolvency Service said there were 29,774 individual insolvencies in England and Wales (331 people a day or 1 every 4.35 minutes) in the first quarter of 2009 on a seasonally adjusted basis. This was an increase of 1.6% on the previous quarter and an increase of 19% on the same period a year ago.

There were 12,800 repossessions by first-charge mortgage lenders in the first quarter of this year, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders. This equates to 142 properties being repossessed every day or 1 property being repossessed every 10 minutes. This compares with 10,400 in the fourth quarter of last year, and 8,500 in the first quarter of 2008.

The number of mortgages in arrears continued to rise on all measures. The number of loans with arrears of more than 2.5% of the mortgage balance rose by 12% from 182,600 in the fourth quarter of 2008 to 205,300 in the first quarter of this year (62% up on the 127,000 in the first quarter of 2008). The FSA estimate that the total number of secured loans where the amount of actual arrears is 1.5% or more of the borrower’s current loan balance on people’s homes in arrears at the end of Q4 was 377,000 loans.

The total number of county court judgments (CCJs) against consumers in England and Wales in Q4 2008 was 212,104 which was an 11.2% increase from the previous year. This is equivalent to 2,324 every day.

Around 700,000 people are currently left off the official British insolvency figures, even though they are technically insolvent. Added to the official figures, this means the total of insolvent individuals in the UK is now approaching 1 million. These 700,000 ‘hidden debtors’ are the latest estimate from a YouGov survey, conducted in consultation with R3, of the number of individuals in Great Britain who are currently in a Debt Management Plan (DMP). The 700,000 DMPs dwarfs the combined total of those in an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) and declared bankruptcy which amounted to 190,000 by the end of 2008. The number of DMPs has also jumped an astonishing 17% in seven months (from August 2008 to February 2009).

A recent poll conducted by the Resolution Foundation found that nearly 3 million low earners now worry ‘all the time’ about their personal finances. This is double the number found in 2007. The poll also found that, today, nearly 90 per cent of low earners (people who live on annual household incomes of between £12,000 and £27,000) worry at least ‘sometimes’ about their personal finances.

New figures from Unbiased.co.uk show that as a nation, we have worked the first 83 days of this year just to earn enough money to service the interest on our debts and that Wed. 25th March was this year’s Debt Freedom Day.

According to Unbiased.co.uk’s Savings Brake research 2008 was the first year in their eight-year study where Brits paid off more non-mortgage debt than they took out in new borrowings.

According to YouGov’s quarterly ‘DebtTracker’ undertaken in Feb. 2009, only 37% of those who had ‘fallen behind with many bills or credit commitments’ sought debt advice in the previous 6 months. 65% of all those struggling with bills and commitments who do not seek financial advice thought they did not ‘need’ advice on their financial problems.

Almost six million Britons fear their homes will be repossessed, according to research from Which? Homeowners are feeling the pinch with 62% of the working population fretful that they or their partner may lose their job, and over four in ten (43%) joint income households are anxious that they wouldn’t be able to pay their mortgage.

The Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) said fewer people are in a position to repay their debts: in 2008 only about a third of clients (35%) were able to commit to a Debt Management Plan (DMP) compared with 42% in 2007 and 46% in 2006. Clients seeking help are becoming more affluent: 12% have net household incomes of more than £30,000 a year and nearly half (47.4%) of those seeking help were homeowners. Homeowners owe on average 83% more than renters. The vast majority (90%) of CCCS client debts are on credit cards and personal loans, the average client owes over £14,000 on each of these items.

Citizens Advice debt clients owe an average of £16,971 - two thirds more than in 2001, and the equivalent of almost 18 times their total monthly household income. It will take them an average of 93 years to pay off the money they owe at a rate they can afford. Citizens Advice Bureaux have seen debt enquiries double in the last ten years.  Debt is now the number one issue advised on in bureaux, accounting for one in three of all enquiries, and CAB advisers are currently dealing with an average of 7,241 new debt problems every working day.

The number of people who spend more than they earn each month has risen to nearly 5.3 million according to Legal and General.

MoneyExpert.com estimate that 3.5m credit card applicants have been turned away by wary providers in the last six months and around 1.6m seeking unsecured personal loans have been turned down in the same period. Looking at all forms of credit, including secured loans against houses, hire purchase agreements, and car finance, the last six months has seen an incredible 6.25m applications rejected.  That equates to more than 33,600 rejections a day.

According to the BBA the proportion of credit card balances bearing interest was 73.8% in March 2009.

Total credit card debt in April 2009 was £53.1bn. The UK collective credit limit on credit cards is £158bn, which is an average credit card limit of £5,129 per person.

The average interest rate on credit card lending is currently 17.74%, which is ~ 17.25% above base rate (0.5%).

There were 146.3m debit, credit or charge cards in circulation in the UK at the end of 2008 according to APACS. An average 241 plastic card purchases were made in the UK every second during Q1 2009 using debit and credit cards (equal to £11,950 /second). 88 cash withdrawals were made every second (equal to £5,720 / second) from UK’s 64,000 cash machines during Q1 2009.

There are more credit cards in the UK than people according to APACS. At the end of 2008 there were 71.3m credit and charge cards in the UK compared with around 60 million people in the country.

The latest CIPD/KPMG Labour Market Outlook report highlights a jobs market sure to strike fear into school-leavers and graduates taking first steps into the jobs market. The labour market outlook shows that nearly half (45%) of UK companies not planning to recruit from either of these groups. Most hard hit are the school leavers. Only 17% of employers from a sample of more than 500 plan to recruit from the pool of 16-year-olds leaving school in the next three months, while a third plan to hire school-leavers at eighteen.

A survey carried out by Debt Lifeboat revealed that nearly 20% of students believe the rising cost of university education will force them into insolvency in the future.

Research by Reform and Chartered Insurance Institute reveals that 50% of the 18 – 34-year olds surveyed had debts (excluding mortgages ) up to £10,000 and 20% had debts (excluding mortgages) greater than £10,000. Nearly a third of IPODs have no savings at all.

FSA research shows that one-in-three students are constantly overdrawn; two-in-five students admit to being completely disorganised about their money; and one-in-three never check their bank statements or, if they do, they only check the final balance.

The annual survey by Push, the UK’s leading independent resource for prospective students, has found that student debt now tops £4,500 for each year of study – a hike of 9.6% since last year. Students who started at university last year can expect to owe over £17,500 by the time they leave and new students should reckon on nearly £4,000 more than that. The national average projected debt on graduation now stands at £14,161.

The average pocket money in 2008 is £6.13 per week, versus £8.01 in 2007. Three in ten children (30%) save some of their pocket money each week.

 In 2007-08 average net income of pensioner couples was £416 per week after housing costs are taken into account and £441 per week before housing costs. The average net income of single pensioners was £193 per week in 2007-08 after housing costs and £221 per week before housing costs. Nearly a third (31%) of pensioner units received some income from income related benefits (other than state pension).

More than 1 in 4 (28%) over 50s questioned in a recent survey fear that their age will see them forced out of jobs if their employer decides to reduce staff numbers due to the economic downturn. Recent figures showing that over the past year the number of unemployed people aged 50 plus has risen by nearly 50 per cent suggest these concerns have become reality for many. While the nightmare of unemployment looms large for the over 50s‚ many are also seeing their pension prospects hit hard by the downturn. Nearly half of respondents (47%) said they are less confident than six months ago that their pension and savings will provide them with a comfortable standard of living in retirement.

Research by Key Retirement Solutions has found that 1 in 3 pensioners still have an outstanding mortgage with an average mortgage debt of £43,069 and average monthly mortgage payment of £205.

According to the Prudential 2009 retirement survey UK workers planning to draw their pensions in 2009 expect to get an average income of £17,779 a year, some £884 less than those retiring in 2008. Retirement will mean taking a £7,129 cut in income compared with the national average salary of £24,908 but some believe they will be considerably worse off.

A Daily Telegraph survey found that almost one in ten adults are having to contribute to their parents' upkeep. Financial experts and politicians noted that a 'sandwich generation' of adults squeezed between their parents and children has become one of the most striking phenomenons of the credit crisis.

Fairinvestment.co.uk has found that, on average, 39% of Brits do not have a pension plan in place and 20% of Brits with a pension have had to reduce their contributions or stop paying into it since the credit crunch began.

Latest figures from Alliance Trust Research Centre show inflation rate facing over 75 year olds was 3.9% in April, 70% higher than the official rate of inflation of 2.3%. It was 3.2% for 65-74 year olds.

On average someone who requires care in a residential care home may expect to pay in the region of £25,000 per annum.

For the first time ever, there are more people of state pensionable age than under-16s.

According to the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) the average house price in the UK in March 2009 now stands at £187,193 (£192,625 in England).

UK annual house price inflation fell by – 13.6%.

Annual house price inflation in London fell by – 15.7%.

The average Mortgage Interest rate has dropped to 3.62%.

Council of Mortgage Lenders research suggests that about 900,000 home-owners currently have some degree of negative equity, although the majority of these - around two thirds - face only modest shortfalls of less than 10% (equating to around £6,000 for those first-time buyers with negative equity, and £8,000 for other home-buyers). A further 565,000 homeowners have just 5% equity, and in total an estimated two million UK mortgage borrowers would not be able to raise a 10% deposit from their equity should they decide to sell their house.

CML estimates that home-owners still have around £2.1 trillion of un-mortgaged housing equity and £1.2 trillion in mortgage loans.

The Halifax said that house prices fell by 1.7% in April. House prices in April were 17.7% lower on an annual basis. This is equivalent to a fall of £91 / day.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said new buyer enquiries have now increased for six months in a row with the positive net balance in April climbing to its best level since August 1999. There is also more evidence that the higher level of buyer interest is feeding through into actual sales with an average of 10.6 per surveyor.

Rightmove said new sellers push up asking prices by 2.4% in May, driven by a mixture of ambition, optimism and necessity. There were 61,000 new sellers this month compared to 135,000 in May last year. This is the lowest number of new properties coming to market that they have seen in May since 2003.

National Association of Estate Agents said estate agents sold more houses in April than in any month since Oct. 2007. The average estate agent sold 10 properties in April, up from 8 in March and a low point of 5 in August 2008.

House purchase mortgage approval numbers in April were 27,685 which were 15.5% lower than a year ago. The average loan approved for house purchase in April was £129,100, some 16.7% lower than a year earlier. The high street banks’ net mortgage lending of £2.7bn has not been as low for some eight years.

Existing home sales across the United States (including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops) fell 3.5% year on year in April 2009 and the average price dropped 15.4% year on year to $170,200. RealtyTrac® said total foreclosure activity in April ended up slightly above the previous month, once again hitting a record-high level. Foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 342,038 U.S. properties during April, a 46% increase from April 2008. One in every 374 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing in April 2009.

Gross mortgage lending declined to an estimated £10.4 billion in April, down 9% from £11.4 billion in March and 60% from £26.1 billion in April 2008, according to new data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

Research by Liverpool Victoria reveals a worrying ‘mortgage gap'. Nearly half of the UK's 2.9m interest-only mortgages (1.3m mortgages with a total value of £74bn) have no specified investment vehicle in place to pay off the capital on the loan.

The average house price in the UK in March 2009 for first time buyers now stands at £133,535 which is an annual decrease of – 16.7%.

The typical first-time buyer deposit in March was 25% (£35,013), the largest amount on record. The average first-time buyer borrowed 3.0 times their income and the average first-time buyer loan was £105,040.

3.09% of buy-to-let loans were in arrears of three months or more at the end of the first quarter, up from 2.31% at the end of 2008 and 0.92% at the end of the first quarter last year. The CML say that this proportion will have been significantly inflated because of the large reduction in many borrowers' monthly payments.

 In the first quarter of 2009, 1,700 buy-to-let repossessions took place (0.15% of all buy-to-let mortgages), up from 1,300 in the fourth quarter (0.11%) and 900 (0.08%) in the first quarter of last year.

The National Landlords Association (NLA) has recently undertaken research which reveals that 37% of landlords currently have tenants in arrears. Over the last six months, 44% of landlords have experienced rental arrears.

FindaProperty rental index shows May 2009 was the first time that rents have not shown a month-on-month decline since as far back as August 2008. Average asking rents remain unchanged at £819 pcm, but are still 5.5% lower than May 2008 when rents stood at £867 pcm. In May 2009, the average time a property was on the market was 65 days, 16 days longer than May 2008.

Nearly half of all first-time buyers under 30 are receiving assistance with their deposit – most likely from parents or grandparents.

Instead of making the traditional new year's resolutions of losing weight or drinking less, many Britons intend to get their money matters in order in 2009, it has been suggested. Research conducted by Halifax Credit Cards has found that of those making resolutions, 57 per cent wanted to review their finances.

According to research from CreditExpert.co.uk, the economic downturn may have broken the taboo of talking about money.  The research reveals that more than half of us (53 per cent of UK adults) admit that we are now far more likely to discuss our personal finances today with other people than we were a year ago.

Research from Mintel shows how fear of the recession is driving consumer behaviour more than an actual change in circumstances.  The research found around a third of adults (30%) in Britain admitting they have cut back on spending mainly through fear of what may happen to their personal financial situation.

The annual survey from Liverpool Victoria on the Cost of a Child shows that parents could spend £193,772 on raising a child from birth to the age of 21. This is equivalent to £9,227 a year, £769 a month or £25 a day.

Weddingplan estimates that couples looking to get married in 2009 can expect to pay a huge £21,089 on their big day.

The average family car now costs £6,133 a year to keep on the road, an increase of 19% (£1000) year-on-year.

Petmeds.co.uk estimate that the cost of keeping a pet has increased by £7.6million a week in the past two years, with UK adults now spending £93.6 million a week on their animals.

Research by WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) has revealed that households in the UK throw away around a third of all of the food we buy.

Callcredit estimate that 21% of the UK population do not have any existing savings at all, compared to 16% in 2008; 25% of the UK population are not currently saving; 38% of the UK’s working population could not survive beyond one month on savings alone and 12% of the UK population has stopped saving over the past six months and started dipping into financial reserves to meet monthly outgoings.

According to uSwitch the average household disposable income in 2008 increased almost £500 a year giving consumers more cash in their pocket - a trend set to continue throughout 2009.

Britons have saved an average of £86.35 each month over the last year, ending on a high of £90.12 (~6.48% of the population’s average take-home income) during the winter months ending February 2009, according to the latest Savings Survey from NS&I.

Prioritising spending and setting a clear budget could help people reduce unnecessary outgoings, whilst freeing up some additional disposable income to set aside in savings. This winter 30% of the British population confessed that they had spent more than they would ideally like, while 15% said that they do not know how much they should be spending each month. Reviewing income and outgoings may be particularly worthwhile for the 54% of the population that stated that they can’t afford to save, as their outgoings prevent them from setting more money aside.

Almost a quarter of people (24%) say they didn't have savings two years ago and they still don't. More than a third of people (36%) say they have less money in savings now than two years ago, according to a poll conducted in March 2009 by moneysupermarket.com.

Fairinvestment.co.uk estimate that 47% of UK savers have been forced to dip into their savings since the onslaught of the credit crunch, while 14% have either stopped saving or reduced the amount they save.

As many as 14 million people say they cannot afford to set aside money for savings. However, a financial experiment conducted by AXA reveals that in just three months Britons can train themselves to save without substantially affecting their lifestyle. The research indicates that Britons treat money left in their current account after bills have been paid as the amount they need to live on and set their standard of living accordingly. If money is paid into a savings account on pay day the research demonstrates that they change their spending patterns and establish a new standard of living based on their remaining disposable income.