Concerns that debt is falsely propping up economy

Banks are trying to help people by offering interest-only mortgages or mortgage repayment holidays but that is only a temporary solution.

They made their comments after a report was published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills which claimed that the government's strategy for helping people with unmanageable debt had been a complete failure.

The Helpline is concerned that there is going to be a rise in the number of bankruptcies, insolvencies and repossessions as 11% of people in the UK are struggling to manage their debts.

To combat these problems they would like to see banks fixing their interest rates for at least 5 years.

They also want banks to force credit card companies to reduce their interest rates.

New figures from Credit Action paint a very gloomy picture. The average UK household debt now stands at £58,290. An individual is declared insolvent every 4 minutes and a property repossessed every 11.

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