Over half of monthly take home pay is swallowed up repaying debts

Over half of monthly take home pay is swallowed up repaying debts, a survey from comparison website uswitch has revealed.

It found the average person sees 35 per cent of their wages taken up by mortgage payments, and a further 18 per cent being eaten up by other debts.

And that in the last six months 21 per cent of consumers had “maxed out” on at least one of their credit cards or overdrafts.

Ann Robinson, at uSwitch.com says: “More than half our take home pay is now eaten up by debt repayments, but our ability to repay and manage this debt is clearly faltering.

“The banks are being forced to write-off vast sums and, as a result, they are tightening their lending belts. This means that credit will become both harder for consumers to get and more expensive.”

Chiltern‚Äö√Ñ√¥s Joanne Gill says: ‚Äö√Ñ√∫UK consumers are some of the most indebted in the world because credit has been easily available during a prolonged period of economic stability and low interest rates. But that’s all changed in the last three months and more and more people are going to find their existing credit commitments harder to manage.

“If people can’t afford to pay their unsecured debts and still keep a roof over their heads they need help, and Chiltern can provide that through informal and formal debt management plans.”