Action needed to enddebttrap

Chris Preston, Halifax

DEBT Week is a nationwide week of action to end the debt trap faced by people, families and communities across the UK.

Right now there’s a whole industry preying on some of the UK’s poorest families. They’re charging punishing interest rates to people who struggle to buy food and pay essential bills.

Personal debt has reached the highest ever level - a staggering £217bn. One person in four in the UK today (it’s estimated just over three million households) has debt problems, and more and more people are getting into debt just to cover essentials like food. Once your pulled in, it can seem impossible to get out. Levels of unsecured household debt are now very close to the levels seen just prior to the 2008 financial crisis, with no sign of slowing down in the near future. Some of the reasons put forward for this high level of debt is a combination of low wages, insecure work, universal benefit and cuts to Social Security, which drives a growing number of families across our town to turn to high cost lenders to make ends meet.

The Jubilee Debt Campaign is urgently calling on all candidates in the General Election campaign and who ever forms the next Government to state they will end rip-off lending by capping interest and charges for loans, credit cards, overdrafts and door step lending. We also call on the next Government to hold an inquiry into why so little action has been taken and to put pressure on the Financial Conduct Authority.