Debt & Bankruptcy Issues in the UK

An advisor for Citizens Advice UK has spoken out against banks lending money to people who unlikely to be able repay their debts. Suman Antcliffe, who works as at the East Staffordshire Citizens Advice in Burton upon Trent, says that she seen a number of cases locally where local banks are issuing loans to people who have little prospect of being able to pay them back.

Ms Antcliffe cited an example of a married couple who approached a bank when the husband lost his job and they could no longer afford to pay off their debts. When the wife approached the bank she was told she could take out a loan to use to meet the repayments. After 5 such loans they had amassed a debt of £30,000, which they were unable to repay. Another client on a net income of £1080 a month was given a loan with monthly repayments of £736, despite having verified his salary with his employer.

Ms Antcliffe gave similar example of what some might call irresponsible lending and said that for some of her clients she had been able to get their debt written off.

She said that Lloyds TSB had been particularly helpful, writing off 6 loans for her clients. In fact Lloyds TSB said that they had dismissed two of their staff.

Citizens Advice argued that the priorities of the high street banks were changing in the 21st century. Most people still saw their bank manager as a father-figure, and trusted that borrowing more money was the best solution to their debt problems instead of instead of re-negotiating their debt. Much of the UK debt is caused by reckless overspending, but Citizen’s Advice argue that some banks are lending irresponsibly too.