One in Five People in Debt for Food

How  is the economic downturn affecting consumers in the UK?

A Consumers 2012 report on consumer spending habits found that some Brits are having to take drastic measures just to get by.

Perhaps the most surprising result is that a fifth of the 2,000 surveyed people had gone in to debt to pay for everyday essentials like food.

One in four people have recently had to use savings to buy food or other daily essentials.

One in five have gone into debt to buy them.

Read more here.

According to Credit Action’s Debt Statistic the outstanding  personal  debt  stood  at  £1.456  trillion  at  the  end  of  January  2012.

• Average  household  debt  in  the  UK  (including  mortgages)  was  £55,988  in January.

• The  average  amount  owed  per  UK  adult  (including  mortgages)  was  £29,634  in January.

• £173m was  the  daily   amount  of  interest   paid  on  personal  debt   in  January

On this interactive map you can also see which places are at the biggest risk of poverty across England.

How poor is your area – and how much worse will it get?