UK Debt: February 2024 statistics

Snapshot of UK debt February 2024

• Inflation rate has stayed at 4% 
• Petrol has further decreased by 2 pence per litre from December 2023 
• Average credit card debt per household stood at £1,295 in December 2023 which is a surprising decrease
• The average total debt per household is £57,586 in December 2023 
• Total unsecured debt stands at £4,123 per adult in December 2023 
• 1.6% decrease in the average first time buyer house price to the year to December 2023

UK Personal Debt

Remember that you can view the statistics from last month here in order to compare with the February 2024 debt statistics.

• The average total debt per household, including mortgages, was £65,395 or £34,526 per adult, which is a slight decrease from last month’s figures. This is around 99.9% of average earnings
• 249 people per day were declared bankrupt or insolvent in England and Wales from October to December. This equates to one person every 5 minutes and 8 seconds
• The Citizens Advice Bureau dealt with 1,183 debt issues every day in the year to January 2024
• 5.7 properties were repossessed every day in October to December, which was one every 4 hours and 8 minutes
• 1,260 people a day reported they had become redundant between May and July
• Government debt increased by £593.4 million per day in the three months to December 2023
• The number of people unemployed decreased by 54 per day in the year to December 2023
• The UK population shrunk by an estimated 151 people per day between 2020 and 2021

If you compare the statistics over the last few months, it looks quite positive from an economic perspective on the face of it. However, if you delve a little deeper, things are not what they seem.

Personal debt levels remain a threat to the financial well-being of UK households and it has been reported that the Citizens Advice Bureau actually referred 225,009 households to food banks last month alone.

Debt held by UK adults is almost exactly equal to one year’s average earnings, which means that many UK households are living month to month still. Indeed, 51% of adults in the UK live in households which have less than three months’ wages available as savings. Lone parents are paying unaffordable rents, set at over a third of their income. This illustrates that even with the slight decreases illustrated in the statistics, reality is that people are still unable to save due to the ongoing burden of their debts.

The Money Charity have commented to say that they “believe that there is no scenario when someone is ‘beyond’ help and that the right time to seek help is always as soon as possible. We would always encourage anyone concerned to look into the many sources of reliable and free support that are available. Ignoring the situation is never the right choice and one of many reasons why we aim each day to encourage people to talk about their money, to not see their finances as a scary thing to be secretive about, but something to be open and honest about with those you love and trust.”

If last year had a negative impact on your financial situation and you are worried about your debt situation this year, feel free to call us for a discussion on what debt solutions could be available to suit your personal situation.