2.0% Inflation rate in the year to May 2024
7.02% Change in outstanding credit card balances in year to April 2024
£2,471 Average credit card debt per household in April 2024
1.3% Increase in average first-time buyer house price in the year to April 2024
2.4 pence per litre Decrease in the price of unleaded petrol in May 2024
£65,143 Average total debt per UK household in April 2024
£4,232 Total unsecured debt per UK adult in April 2024
11 years Time to save for a first-time buyer house deposit, saving at the average rate out of average UK income (at December to February 2024 rate)
UK Personal Debt
People in the UK owed £1,850.1 billion at the end of April 2024.
This is up by £18.2 million from £1,831.9 billion at the end of April 2023, an extra £339.65 per UK adult over the year.
The average total debt per household, including mortgages, was £65,143.
Per adult this was £34,487, around 97.0% of average earnings. This is up from the revised £34,370 a month earlier.
Based on April 2024 numbers, the UK’s total interest payments on personal debt over a 12-month period would have been £76.96 billion, an average of £210 million per day.
The average annual interest per household would have been £2,710 and per person £1,435, 4.03% of average earnings.
According to the Office for Budget Responsibility’s November 2023 forecast, household debt of all types is forecast to rise from £2,259 billion in 2023 to £2,429 billion in 2025.
This would make the average total household debt £85,274 (assuming household numbers track ONS population projections.)
At the end of April 2024, outstanding consumer credit lending was £227.04 billion, increasing by £3.7 billion on the revised total for the previous month.
Within the total, outstanding credit card debt came to £70.1 billion, an increase of 7.02% in the year to April 2024. Credit card debt averaged £2,471 per household and £1,308 per adult.
A credit card on the average interest would take 26 years and 10 months to repay, making only the legal minimum repayments each month.
The minimum repayment in the first month would be £70 but would reduce each month. If £70 were paid every month, the debt would be cleared in 4 years and 11 months.
Total net lending to individuals and housing associations by UK banks and building societies increased by £6.2 billion in April 2024 or £207 million a day over revised figures for March 2024.
Net mortgage lending increased by £2.5 billion in the month, while net consumer credit lending increased by £30 million.
In Q1 2024 lenders wrote off £646 million (of which £312 million was credit card debt, amounting to a daily write-off of £3.42 million.)
Everyday in the UK
The population of the UK grew by an estimated 1,584 people a day between mid-year 2021 and mid-year 2022.
On average, a UK household spends £3.43 a day on water, electricity and gas.
300 people a day were declared insolvent or bankrupt in England or Wales in March to May 2024. This was equivalent to one person every 4 minutes and 40 seconds.
In Northern Ireland in the three months to April 2024, there were 4.1 insolvencies per day. In Scotland in the three months to March 2024 there were 20.7 insolvencies per day.
Citizens Advice Bureaux in England and Wales dealt with 1,183 debt issues every day in the year to May 2024.
9.5 properties were repossessed every day in January to March 2024 in the UK, or one every 2 hours and 30 minutes.
The number of UK mortgages with arrears of over 2.5% of the remaining balance increased by 54.5 a day in the year to March 2024.
The number of people unemployed in the UK increased by 430 per day in the twelve months to April 2024.
1,088 people a day reported they had become redundant in February to April 2024.
Net lending to individuals and housing associations in the UK increased by £207 million a day in April 2024.
Government debt increased by £567.3 million a day in the three months to May 2024.
Borrowers paid £210 million a day in interest in March 2024.
It costs an average of £25.28 per day for a couple to raise a child from birth to the age of 18.
For a lone parent family, the cost of raising a child comes to £33.54 per day.
56.9 mortgage possession claims and 34 mortgage possession orders were made every day in England and Wales in January to March 2024.
273.3 landlord possession claims and 199.5 landlord possession orders were made every day.