A new report idicates that the levels of personal debt among people seeking help from the Citizens Advice bureau has doubled in the last five years.

The Drowning in Debt report, which looked at cases brought to Citizens Advice bureau workers in its Scottish branches, paints the picture that more and more people in the region, are deep in debt, whilst creditors and debt collection agencies resort to increasingly aggressive recovery tactics.

The statistics mentioned in the report speak for themselves really with one in ten CAB clients having a personal debt of more than £50,000 pounds with the worst being a personal debt of £239,346 excluding mortgage debts.  The debts on average broke down to every £1 pound the client earned in a month, they owed £28 pounds, with the ratio of debt to monthly income rising by a quarter since 2003.

Spiralling debt

Brian Ritchie, a book keeper from Paisley, is a prime example of the cases that staff at the CAB deal with. Amassing about £45,000 of debt, his finances spiralled out of control when his wife's disability payments were delayed because of an administrative mix-up and he racked up huge credit card bills.

He said: "Everything is maxed up to the hilt. I am up to my neck in debt.  Each month when I get my wages, I go on the internet and work out how much I need to pay on each card I have.  I have found that if you try to run away from your debts they will catch up with you."

He added: "It is very easy to get credit cards. As far as I could see there were no checks done on me. I just phoned up and asked for one.  I feel companies should really be doing more to check what other debts you have before giving you more."

The companies handing out credit cards with minimal checks are also being accused of using high pressure tactics on often venerable people.  Two fifths of people in the report have said they have been a victim of aggressive harassment.

Unlawful debt recovery

Even worse the report had discovered that almost twice as many debt clients in 2008 had been threatened with unlawful debt recovery methods. The vast majority are also having charges and fees added to their debts, due to their failure to pay on time.

Kaliani Lyle, chief executive of Citizens Advice Scotland, said the recession was making things even worse for people on low incomes, and plunging many others into financial hardship for the first time.

"The result is that debt has become a sad reality for too many Scots," she said.

"But this report shows that the levels of that debt are getting out of control. Debt breeds debt. People take out a loan or new credit card because they can't make ends meet.  Then they fall behind with their repayments, so they take out another loan to pay the first one off.

"Then they find they have to take another loan again, and before long they are spiralling into massive debts that they just can't control." She warned that taking out further loans was rarely the answer, and urged anyone concerned about their finances to seek advice immediately.