UK Average Debt Statistics
Table 8.1
| Oct-18 | Oct-17 | Annual Change | |
| Average household debt in the UK (excluding mortgages) | £7,926 | £7,549 | +£377 |
| Average household debt in the UK (including mortgages) | £59,288 | £57,432 | +£1,856 |
| The average amount owed per UK adult | £30,965 | £30,176 | +£789 |
| The average amount owed per UK adult as a % of average earnings | 113.00% | 113.70% | -0.70 |
| Average consumer borrowing per UK adult | £4,140 | £3,966 | +£174 |
| Estimated outstanding mortgage per household w/ mortgage debt | £125,860 | £122,235 | +£3,625 |
| Source: The Money Charity, December 2018 | |||
Average household debt in the UK (excluding mortgages) was £7,926 in October 2018. The figure has increased by £377 on the previous year. Average household debt in the UK (including mortgages) was £59,288 in October 2018. The figure has risen by £1,856 on the previous year.
The average amount owed per UK adult (including mortgages) was £30,965 in October 2018. The figure has risen by £789 on the previous year. The average amount owed per UK adult (including mortgages) was 113% of average earnings,slightly down by 0.7percentage points on last year.
Average consumer borrowing per UK adult (including credit cards, motor and retail finance deals, overdrafts and unsecured loans) was £4,140 in October 2018, up £174 on the previous year. It is estimated that the average outstanding mortgage per household that carry mortgage debt was £125,860 in October 2018, this is up £3,625 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 | 2017 | 2017 | 2016 | Annual Change | |||
| Average arrears amount | Clients in arrears | % of clients | Clients in arrears | % of clients | No | % Change | |
| Council Tax | £1,021 | 71,342 | 30.1% | 67,040 | 30.1% | +4,302 | +6.4 |
| CCJs | £1,822 | 5,481 | 17.2% | 5,321 | 20.2% | +160 | +3.0 |
| Electricity | £684 | 38,135 | 14.3% | 33,974 | 13.3% | +4,161 | +12.2 |
| Gas | £537 | 22,186 | 11.5% | 20,874 | 11.6% | +1,312 | +6.3 |
| Court Fines | £607 | 792 | 4.6% | 1,600 | 9.7% | -808 | -50.5 |
| Mortgage | £3,125 | 11,243 | 20.6% | 13,559 | 22.9% | -2,316 | -17.1 |
| Rent | £947 | 47,861 | 21.5% | 44,630 | 23.5% | +3,231 | +7.2 |
| TV License | £77 | 18,288 | 7.7% | 17,409 | 7.7% | +879 | +5.0 |
| Water | £709 | 52,484 | 23.7% | 51,102 | 24.2% | +1,382 | +2.7 |
| Hire Purchase | £884 | 11,998 | 20.2% | 9,216 | 17.9% | +2,782 | +30.2 |
| Source: StepChange Yearbook Statistics on Personal Debt 2017, March 2018 | |||||||
Clients that contact the debt charity, StepChange on average have a debt of £1,021 owing to council tax. Nationally 71,342 clients contacted Stepchange about council tax debts. Council tax arrears make up just over 30% of all StepChange clients in arrears. The proportion of clients with council tax arrears have increased by 4,302 since 2016 at a rate of %.
The number of clients experiencing Court Fines and Mortgage arrears have declined over the last year. However, sharp rises have particularly been seen in Electricity bills arrears and hire purchase arrears. The average amount owed by clients in Electric bills was £684 in 2017 and the number of clients with these arrears grew by 12.2%. The average amount owed in hire purchase arrears was £884, and the number of clients with these arrears grew by 30.2%.
StepChange Debt type, proportion of clients
Table 8.6
| National UK Data | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | Annual Change 2016-2017 |
| Credit Card | 67.6% | 67.0% | 65.7% | +0.6% |
| Overdraft | 49.8% | 52.1% | 55.1% | -2.3% |
| Personal Loan | 45.7% | 44.4% | 42.6% | +1.3% |
| Catalogue | 35.0% | 35.8% | 34.7% | -0.8% |
| Payday Loan | 16.8% | 16.3% | 15.7% | +0.5% |
| Store Card | 11.8% | 12.2% | 12.5% | -0.4% |
| Home Credit | 7.7% | 8.0% | 9.1% | -0.3% |
| Source: StepChange Yearbook Statistics on Personal Debt 2017, March 2018 | ||||
In their 2017 Yearbook, 67.6% of clients calling into Stepchange had credit card debts, 49.8% had overdraft debts and 16.8% had payday loan debts.
StepChange Debt type, average value
Table 8.7
| National UK Data | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | Annual Change 2016-2017 |
| Personal loan | £8,332 | £8,920 | £8,637 | -£588 |
| Credit card | £7,690 | £8,304 | £8,403 | -£614 |
| Catalogue | £1,939 | £2,003 | £1,937 | -£64 |
| Overdraft | £1,607 | £1,700 | £1,725 | -£93 |
| Home credit | £1,592 | £1,487 | £1,424 | +£105 |
| Payday loan | £1,519 | £1,415 | £1,308 | +£104 |
| Store card | £1,108 | £1,098 | £1,063 | +£10 |
| Source: StepChange Yearbook Statistics on Personal Debt 2017, March 2018 | ||||
When clients called into Stepchange in 2017, the average debt owed on their personal loan was £8,332, the average owed on credit cards was £7,690 and the average owed on Payday loans was £1,519. Home Credit, Payday Loan and Store Card average debt figures have all seen a rise on 2016.
Debt Advice provided in Leeds
Table 8.8
| Money Advice Service – Debt Advice | 2017/18 | 2016/17 | Annual Change 2016-2017 | |
| No | % | |||
| Number of clients receiving debt advice | 4,554 | 4,751 | -197 | -4.1% |
| Source: Citizens Advice, Leeds Debt Advice, April 2018 | ||||
This table displays just part of the debt advice provision in Leeds for 2016/17 that was funded through the Money Advice Service (MAS). 4,554 clients across Leeds have received free independent debt advice from providers across Leeds; the providers are Citizens Advice Leeds, Ebor Gardens, St Vincent’s and Better Leeds Communities. Client numbers have fallen by 4.1% in the past year.