During the past few days we have been on the virtual campaign trail in support of Funts – financial untouchables – lobbying prospective parliamentary candidates for their support of improved legislation for a fairer treatment of people that fall into debt.  We have created an opportunity to get personal debt issues back on the political map.

This is how you can make a difference and spread the word.

Our recent survey shows that a  scandalously small number of parliamentary candidates are interested in changing the law to help people in personal debt (14%).

And there is a huge variation between the parties too with (this surprised us) the LibDems being by far the least responsive of all the major parties (7%: Labour – 20% and Conservative – 15%).

Of the 358 parliamentary candidates that did answer, more than nine out of ten were in favour of law changes that would help people with debt problems. Read the full findings of the politicians survey about debt.

If you support our efforts to get the real debt noticed by Britons politicians please read on.

Spread the word:

1. Recommend this to your friends on Facebook.

2. Hit this Twitter button to spread the word.

Want to contact your local candidate? Great, there are lots of ways to identify who are your prospective candidates. We recommend you use the excellent services publically available  such as Tweetminster, the BBC UK election, YourNextMP.

Go the whole hog and email them? Excellent, we can help you.

3. Email your candidate

As a start here´s some text which you are welcome to copy and paste into your email.

I am one of your constituents. Like 11% of your voters, I have had a hard time struggling with personal debt – and without much help from government. I can’t understand why only one in seven parliamentary candidates like you could be bothered to show their support for initiatives that will help encourage people in debt to do something about it and which will prevent future discrimination by the banks and credit card companies. Your party’s consumer debt policy seems to be all about helping people to avoid debt in the first place and to do nothing for the millions that are in debt up to their necks and can’t cope. Please will you show your support for this important, and huge, group of voters by leaving a comment on this blog: http://bit.ly/funts (Your responses will be broadcast across the web through Facebook and Twitter – so other voters will see it). You might even want to challenge your fellow candidates on the issue. If you want the latest facts about debt where you are standing, you can find them here: http://bit.ly/UKDebtData1 Please help us. People in debt are amongst the most overlooked groups in Britain – it’s all well and good changing laws to help prevent overindebtedness, but there are millions of taxpayers whose personal financial situation is in danger of collapse over the next couple of years. Our economic revival is dependent on consumer spending. Do you really want a flood of bankruptcies?

Be warned though, your prospective candidates are very busy people just right now, but remember they need your vote and that´s one thing we can all be clear about.

Questions? Leave them below in the comments.

Thanks for your support.

A few weeks ago, before we decided to directly question those standing for parliament about their policy about consumer debt we asked ourselves one question:

Are they really talking about the sort of debt that matters to most people?

For all the debate about soaring national debt and systemic national deficit in recent months, banker´s bonuses and public sector cuts, the real debate around the dining tables is of consumer debt.

Whilst the lobbying of all politicians for improved legislation relating to consumer debt continues, and the general election approaches, we have, with thanks to our friends at Tweetminster put this Twitter list on display.

It lists precisely what all Prospective Parliamentary Candidates are talking about right now.

Click on any candidate to view their thoughts, and if you are on Twitter, send them a tweet and ask them what they are doing to help #funts.

So, are they talking about your sort of debt?

With an election looming, now seems as good a time as any to ask the question, “who is going to be the knight in shining armour for those struggling with debt?”

We’ve all seen the figures, 1 in 10 adults have a debt problem, and that’s just those who have admitted it. In reality, you can probably double that figure if you include those that do not yet realise the problem, or those too proud or foolish to admit it. There are 43 Million people eligible to vote in the UK, so that is, potentially, up to 10.6 Million people with one thing in common. That’s a lot of votes, if only someone had the initiative to go after those votes.

As an example, when a debt problem arises, around 85% of people have to change banks, most of whom have to open a basic account. According to the FSA site, one third of banks operate basic accounts without a debit card facility. In this day and age, a debit card is a necessity, not a luxury. Who is going to call the banks in and ask them why on earth these facilities are not provided?

That is just one example, and there are many more. Perhaps you can share yours with us?

If you haven’t taken part in ClearDebt’s poll on your plans to vote this election please click here, and why not also see if your home town features on the top ten list of UK’s indebted towns?

A survey by UK leading debt solution company, ClearDebt confirms the number of people in the UK struggling with debt continues to rise.

Using data from just over 16,000 people with debt worries, the research shows that the number of people in debt is increasing, whilst the amount of debt they are in is decreasing.

• Debt concerns up by 13%
• Indebted Britons owe £22,000, would take minimum of 39 months to repay debts
• Harrogate debtors owe most in Britain (£41,667 in credit cards and loans). Shrewsbury debtors would take longest to repay (85 months).

Homeowners with debt worries see equity rise (but debtors in NW London have negative equity of – £70,000, after all debts repaid.

The research by ClearDebt confirms a 13% increase of people with debt worries between October 2009 and March 2010 in comparison to those with money worries in October 2008 – March 2009.  The survey also shows debts owed by these people have declined by nearly £5,000 over the same period. ClearDebt believe that whilst the numbers of people with debt worries is rising, heightened awareness of debt issues means that they are seeking advice earlier in the cycle of debt – which may make it easier for them to resolve the problem.

In 2009 the average British homeowner would have been left owing more than £7,812 if they sold up to repay all their debt, this year they’d have nearly £8,400 left for a deposit on a new home.

CEO of ClearDebt, David Mond explains,

The number of people asking us for debt help has increased by 13% between the two periods (October 09 – March 10 in comparison to the same period in 2008/09). What we are seeing is more people than ever before seeking help but with lesser debts. For me, Britain’s personal debt issues are getting more worrying, not less.

A survey by the Commons public accounts committee shows that 11% of UK voters have serious debt worries. We have pointed out that these funts (financial untouchables – people who are trying to deal with their debt but are still disenfranchised by banks) are being treated unfairly by the financial community: Britain’s debt worries could make a big difference to May 6 election result – if they push political parties to change their views on debt.

ClearDebt list the top ten towns for debt as:

1. Harrogate
2. Halifax
3. Guildford
4. Worcester
5. Inverness
6. Tweed (Galashiels)
7. Shrewsbury
8. Chelmsford
9. Medway (Rochester)
10. Torquay

Notes to editors:

To see the latest blog post by ClearDebt – part of the campaign to get  FUNTS treated fairly in this year’s election, please click here.

Access more detailed data on the ClearDebt UK  Debt Survey.

Further information:
Tel:    0161 968 6825 / 07912 407 532
Email:    andrew.smith@cleardebt.co.uk
Twitter    @Andrew_F_Smith
Website    www.cleardebt.co.uk
Twitter    @cleardebt / @IVA

More than one in ten of Britain’s voters has a personal debt problem. Yet, we’ve heard very little said about debt from any of the political parties. Our mountain of personal debt seems, to us, not to feature in political debate. Just as it appears the politicos are hiding from us the costly steps they will have to take to deal with Britain’s bank-rescue induced deficit, so it seems they are hiding from the fact that they are about to try to raise taxes from a nation where millions of people just can’t afford to pay.

It’s about time politicians took steps to help people who genuinely want to do something about their debt and in my next blog I’ll throw a few ideas into the ring.

For now, however, lets just inject some facts into the debate. I took a sample of 16,056 people from our database of people struggling with debt and looked at how things had changed between October 2008 and March 2009 and October 2009 to March 2010 (that’s the latest data we have).

Bearing in mind this data relates to people so worried about their debt that they come to us and ask for help, the top line is this:

• These people owe (just in credit card debts and unsecured loans – NOT the mortgage), on average, £22,061 (that’s £4,774 less than they owed in 08-09).
• If they were to use all their spare income (that not spent on essentials) they would take on average, 39 months to repay their unsecured debt (that’s unrealistically low – I have had to assume that their creditors are charging no interest).
• Finally, homeowners who wish to repay their unsecured debt from the equity in their home would be able, on average, to do so and still have a surplus of £8,391. That’s a huge turn round from last year – when they had an average negative equity of £7,812.

Now, before you run away thinking that these figures show that things are getting better, think on.

The number of people asking us for debt help increased by 13% between the two periods. So, I think what we are seeing is more people, with lesser debts, seeking help than ever before. For me, Britain’s personal debt issues are getting more intractable – not less.

Things vary widely from town to town, too: Britain’s most indebted place is Harrogate – with average unsecured debt of £41,667, taking 42 months to repay. Six of the ten least indebted places are in Scotland. The least indebted places are London (West Central) and London (East Central) – but I tend to ignore those simply because central London data is so variable (all those bankers bonuses – doncha’know).

Here are our top tens (you can download the data in Google Docs spreadsheet below giving our complete lists of debt data for the United Kingdom)

Google Docs 75 Kb

Dear candidates, we think,wherever you are standing, these will convince you personal debt is an issue that is big enough to make a difference to your vote.