Lenders are forcing people into a vicious cycle of deepening debt

When you drift into debt, it’s not easy to get out of it. Many end up in financial trouble for years because, instead of confronting their problems, they meander on paying a little bit back here and there.

For many it becomes a way of life. I interviewed a lot of different people about their finances for a television programme this year and one of the first questions I asked was ‘what debt do you have?’. I was staggered by the number who said they didn’t have any debt and later admitted they owed a couple of thousand on credit cards.

It wasn’t that they were lying or even trying to ignore the debt. It was simply that it had become such a regular part of their lives – often for many, many years – that they didn’t think of it as debt any longer. It had become another of their regular payments, along with the monthly energy, broadband and mobile bills.