The Money Statistics October 2024

People in the UK owed £1,864.9 billion at the end of August 2024.

This is up by £27.39 billion from £1,837.49 billion at the end of August 2023, an extra £507.32 per UK adult over the year.

The average total debt per household, including mortgages, was £65,665.

Per adult this was £34,536, around 95.6% of average earnings. This is up from the revised £34,461 a month earlier.

Based on August 2024 numbers, the UK’s total interest payments on personal debt over a 12-month period would have been £80.4 billion, an average of £220 million per day.

The average annual interest per household would have been £2,831 and per person £1,489, 4.14% 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 August 2024, outstanding consumer credit lending was £231.4 billion, increasing by £949 million on the revised total for the previous month.

Within the total, outstanding credit card debt came to £71.5 billion, an increase of 6.38% in the year to August 2024. Credit card debt averaged £2,518 per household and £1,324 per adult.

A credit card on the average interest rate would take 27 years to repay, making only the legal minimum repayments each month.

The minimum repayment in the first month would be £72 but would reduce each month. If £72 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 £4 billion in August 2024 or £133.5 million a day over revised figures for July 2024.

Net mortgage lending increased by £3.056 billion in the month, while net consumer credit lending increased by £305 million.

In Q2 2024 lenders wrote off £608 million (of which £288 million was credit card debt, amounting to a daily write-off of £3.16 million.)

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 £5.20 a day on water, electricity and gas.

330.6 people a day were declared insolvent or bankrupt in England or Wales in July to September 2024. This was equivalent to one person every 4 minutes and 20 seconds.

In Northern Ireland in the three months to September 2024, there were 4.3 insolvencies per day. In Scotland in the three months to June 2024 there were 22.3 insolvencies per day.

Citizens Advice Bureaux in England and Wales dealt with 1,227 debt issues every day in the year to September 2024.

10.77 properties were repossessed every day in April to June 2024 in the UK, or one every 2 hours and 20 minutes.

The number of UK mortgages with arrears of over 2.5% of the remaining balance increased by 38.8 a day in the year to June 2024.

The number of people unemployed in the UK decreased by 180 per day in the twelve months to September 2024.

869 people a day reported they had become redundant in July to September 2024.

Net lending to individuals and housing associations in the UK increased by £133.5 million a day in August 2024.

Government debt increased by £518.6 million a day in the three months to September 2024.

Borrowers paid £220 million a day in interest in August 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.

55.8 mortgage possession claims and 35.2 mortgage possession orders were made every day in England and Wales in April to June 2024.

262.7 landlord possession claims and 198.5 landlord possession orders were made every day.