June 17, 2011 12.07 pm This story is over 161 months old

Concerns over Lincoln’s ‘high levels of debt’

Rising debts: A debt advice charity revealed a sizeable increase in people getting in touch about financial troubles in Lincoln.

The UK’s leading debt advice charity, Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS), has voiced its concern over high levels of personal debt in Lincoln.

Lincoln residents contacting the CCCS in 2010 owed an average of £19,765 in unsecured debts. The national average is £19,338.

The figure has been revealed by a map on the CCCS website called Debt View that breaks down personal debt by region.

The map shows that in the Lincoln area there were 542 people contacting the charity for help in 2010. This is an increase of 19% in two years.

Delroy Corinaldi, external affairs director at CCCS, is concerned about “the high levels of debt” in Lincoln but also “by the continuing squeeze on household budgets that is making it increasingly difficult for debtors to repay what they owe”.

The charity revealed in March the number of its clients that were able to repay their debts had fallen to a four-year low.

Corinaldi added: “I would urge anyone in Lincoln who is worried about how to deal with their debts to seek free advice from a charity such as CCCS as early as possible.”

Source: CCCS | Related Report: Lincolnshire Echo