According to the Coventry Law Centre (CLC), the number of people seeking debt help for housing-related problems in the city has increased in the last year.
The CLC said that the number of people it had helped with rental and mortgage repossession court cases in the first six months of 2011 was 165 per cent more than the same time last year
Sue Bent, who is the director of the CLC, attributed this rise in housing-related debt problems in the area to a nationwide increase in job losses, as well as the rising cost of living and falling wages. She said:
“It’s a sign of the times unfortunately,”
“More people are losing their jobs with people in and out of insecure employment.”
“The credit companies are also aware there’s less money around so they’re actually taking more action to recover people’s debts,”
The CLC’s comments were supported by other official statistics which showed the proportion of Coventry’s workforce that was seeking Jobseeker’s Allowance in September 2011 was 5.2 per cent. In the UK as a whole between June and August, unemployment figures reached 2.57 million people, which is the highest it has been for 17 years.
With people unable to find work or remain in employment, it becomes much more difficult to pay bills, rent and mortgage payments. Many people find they have to dip into their savings or rely on credit cards, personal loans and even payday loans to get by.