UK Average Debt Statistics
Table 8.1
| Oct-19 | Oct-18 | Annual Change | |
| Average household debt in the UK (excluding mortgages) | £8088 | £7,926 | +£162 |
| Average household debt in the UK (including mortgages) | £59,840 | £59,288 | +£552 |
| The average amount owed per UK adult | £31,569 | £30,965 | +£604 |
| The average amount owed per UK adult as a % of average earnings | 111.70% | 113.00% | -1.30% |
| Average consumer borrowing per UK adult | £4267 | £4,140 | +£127 |
| Estimated outstanding mortgage per household w/ mortgage debt | £131,383 | £125,860 | +£5523 |
| Source: The Money Charity, December 2020 | |||
Average household debt in the UK (excluding mortgages) was £8088 in October 2019. The figure has increased by £162 on the previous year. Average household debt in the UK (including mortgages) was £59,840 in October 2019. The figure has risen by £552 on the previous year.
The average amount owed per UK adult (including mortgages) was £31,569 in October 2019. The figure has risen by £604 on the previous year. The average amount owed per UK adult (including mortgages) was 111.70% of average earnings,slightly down by 1.3 percentage points on last year.
Average consumer borrowing per UK adult (including credit cards, motor and retail finance deals, overdrafts and unsecured loans) was £4,267 in October 2019, up £127 on the previous year. It is estimated that the average outstanding mortgage per household that carry mortgage debt was £131,383 in October 2019, this is up £5,523 on the previous year.
Total Value of the High Cost Lending Market
Table 8.2
| 2016 | 2009 | 2016-2009 change | |
| UK | £14.8bn | £7.5bn | +£7.3bn |
| Leeds estimate* | £178m | £90m | +£88m |
| Sources: OFT Review of high cost credit, 2010 and FCA Review of high cost credit, 2017
*the Leeds estimate is calculated based on ONS midyear population estimates 2016 for 18+ adults |
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The total value of the high cost credit sector has almost doubled since 2009. Nationally the sector was valued at £7.5bn in 2009 and grew to £14.8bn by 2016. Using Leeds population figures, it is estimated that the high cost credit sector in Leeds was valued at £178m. The value of the sector is broken down further in Table 8.4.
Market Breakdown of the High Cost Lending Sector
Table 8.3
| Sub-sector | Value of the high cost lending market – sub sectors | |
| UK adults | Leeds Estimate* | |
| Catalogue credit | £4.0bn | £48,000,000 |
| Retail finance | £6.0bn | £72,000,000 |
| Store card | £0.7bn | £8,400,000 |
| Payday | £1.1bn | £13,200,000 |
| Home credit | £1.1bn | £13,200,000 |
| Rent-to-own | £0.5bn | £6,000,000 |
| Other running account | £1.0bn | £12,000,000 |
| Guarantor | £0.3bn | £3,600,000 |
| Logbook | £0.1bn | £1,200,000 |
| Total | £14.8bn | £177,600,000 |
| FCA Review of high cost credit, 2017
*the Leeds estimate is calculated based on ONS midyear population estimates in 2016 for 18+ adults |
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The high cost credit sector is made up of a variety of high cost products such as payday loans, rent-to-own stores, store cards etc as displayed in this table. The total sector was valued at £14.8bn in the UK in 2016 and this figure has been broken down further by sub-sector. For example, £1.1bn worth of payday products were sold to customers across the UK, of which £13.2m is estimated to have been sold in Leeds. The rent-to-own sector was worth £500m in the UK, £6m of which is the estimated value of the market in Leeds. Retail Finance and Catalogue Credit are the largest sub sectors of high cost credit, worth a combined £10bn in the UK and 120m in Leeds
Proportion of Adults with outstanding high cost credit debt
Table 8.4
| 2016 FCA | Prop of UK adults | Total no of people with outstanding high cost credit debt | |
| UK adults | Leeds Estimate | ||
| Catalogue credit | 14.7% | 7.6m | 90,690 |
| Retail finance | 10.2% | 5.3m | 62,928 |
| Store card | 3.7% | 1.9m | 22,827 |
| Payday | 3.1% | 1.6m | 19,125 |
| Home credit | 3.1% | 1.6m | 19,125 |
| Rent-to-own | 0.8% | 0.4m | 4,935 |
| Other running account | 0.6% | 0.3m | 3,702 |
| Guarantor | 0.2% | 0.1m | 1,234 |
| Logbook | 0.1% | 0.1m | 617 |
| Total | 36.5% | 18.9m | 225,182 |
| FCA Review of high cost credit, 2017
*the Leeds estimate is calculated based on ONS midyear population estimates 2016 for 18+ adults |
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The FCA estimate that 14.7% of UK adults have outstanding debts on catalogue credit. This is approximately 7.6m UK adults, when the same proportion is applied to the Leeds over 18 population, it can be estimated that 90,690 Leeds adults have outstanding catalogue debts. 3.1% of UK adults have outstanding payday debts, estimated to be affecting 19,125 Leeds adults.
StepChange Clients – Arrears on selected essential household bills
Table 8.5
| Arrears type | 2020 | 2019 | Annual Change 19/20 | |||
| Average arrears amount | % of clients | Average arrears amount | % of clients | Average Arrears Change | % change | |
| Council Tax | £1,292 | 36% | £1,146 | 30% | £146 | 6% |
| CCJs | Not Available | Not Available | Not Available | Not Available | N/A | N/A |
| Electricity | £1,002 | 26% | £825 | 17% | £177 | 9% |
| Gas | £703 | 23% | £661 | 13% | £42 | 10% |
| Mortgage | £3,518 | 17% | £2,977 | 17% | £541 | 0% |
| Rent | £1,463 | 27% | £1,084 | 21% | £379 | 6% |
| TV License | £92 | 7% | £103 | 8% | -£11 | -1% |
| Water | £866 | 32% | £804 | 24% | £62 | 8% |
| Hire Purchase | Not Available | Not Available | Not Available | Not Available | N/A | N/A |
| Source: StepChange Yearbook Statistics on Personal Debt 2020, March 2021 | ||||||
Of clients that contacted the debt charity StepChange in 2020, 36% had arrears with Council Tax. The average value of Council Tax arrears was £1,292 per client. The average value of Council Tax arrears has increased since 2019 by £146. In addition, the proportion of clients with council tax arrears has increased by 6% since 2019.
The average amount owed by clients with electricity arrears was £1,002 in 2020. This has increased from £825 in 2019. The proportion of clients with electricity arrears grew by 10% from 2019 to 2020.
StepChange Debt type, proportion of clients
Table 8.6
| National UK Data | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | Annual Change 2019-2020 |
| Credit Card | 67% | 69% | 68% | -2% |
| Overdraft | 39% | 46% | 47% | -7% |
| Personal Loan | 52% | 48% | 47% | 4% |
| Catalogue | 35% | 35% | 34% | 0% |
| Payday Loan | 13% | 17% | 18% | -4% |
| Store Card | 14% | 13% | 12% | 1% |
| Home Credit | Not Available | Not Available | Not Available | Not Available |
| Source: StepChange Yearbook Statistics on Personal Debt 2020, March 2021 | ||||
In their 2020 Yearbook, 67% of clients calling into StepChange had credit card debts, 39% had overdraft debts and 13% had payday loan debts.