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As the recession draws on, more and more with adverse debt are finding themselves in difficulty – if you are one of those people, you need to seek professional help right away.

The Citizens Advice Bureau has seen a 27% increase in people seeking debt advice in the last year. According to EuroDebt, this means may people going to debt charities could be facing delays of several weeks before the right assistance is provided.

Kevin Still, director of EuroDebt says: “Organisations like the Citizens Advice Bureau do a fantastic job under the circumstances. But the fact is that the scale of consumer debt is putting enormous pressure on them being able to help individuals and families in a timely way.”

New figures show Citizens Advice Bureaux in England and Wales are dealing with around 9,300 cases related to debt problems every working day with the number of people contacting the charity with debt issues rising by 27% year-on-year at the end of June 2009. Chris Pond of the FSA told the BBC that the "tidal wave" of people seeking advice on debt issues because of the credit crunch meant advice agencies are being "swamped". And, in some cases, it can be several weeks before someone can see a debt adviser according to the Citizens Advice Bureau.

Still says: “We have seen a significant rise of over 100% in the number of homeowners starting Debt Management Plans and IVAs during the course of the recession. Many of these clients have never sought debt advice before and when they had made the decision to take action wanted to see someone within a matter of days because they have been used to paying for advice and meeting people on their terms.

"A delay in taking advice can be very costly, especially if people have been in denial for some time and have used expensive forms of credit to make ends meet."

If you find that a debt charity can't help you, don't wait – talk to another professional. You could even ask your mortgage adviser – they may be able to give you debt advice or they will certainly be able to point you in the direction of someone who is qualified to do so. They might be able to offer you some finance options that will ease your problems or they may just help you set up an emergency plan of action. Whatever they can do for you, they will be able to start getting the ball rolling immediately. So don't delay, call a professional right away.

SOURCE: EuroDebt, 08/09/09

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