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"Over-indebtedness has engendered much breast beating over the past 12 months. Everyone from the Treasury Select Committee to man on the Clapham Omnibus is concerned about our unquenchable appetite for credit and its Siamese twin, debt," said Malcolm Hurlston, Chairman of The Foundation for Credit Counselling, Britain's leading debt charity, when it published its first Statistical Yearbook (see CREDIT CONTROL JOURNAL, Volume 27 Number 3 2006).
"For those of us on the front line, it is all too easy to conclude that debt is overwhelming. Calls to CCCS helplines were up by more than 21% throughout 2005; money owed by individual households seemed to be spiralling out of control, debts of more than £100,000 were no longer remarkable - we have seen as high as £300,000; and by the end of 2005, we had 50,000 clients repaying debts compared with 30,000 at the start of 2004," said Mr. Hurlston.
Other debt charities report a growth in demand, while IVAs and bankruptcies are increasing apace. It is against this background that debt management specialist, TDX Group, has produced its first market report, the UK Debt Management Industry Market Report 2004-2005. Conducted in association with lnfiniti Research, the report analyses the current debt market, including the growth in personal debt and looks at the impact of both secured and unsecured lending on financial services, the utilities industry, the public sector and the growing area of student debt. According to the report:
"The debt market is quickly evolving. Comprising of approximately 500 companies, generating in excess of £460 million in revenue during 2004 alone, the market has grown 27% between 2000 and 2004. Made up of a few large, international collection agencies and hundreds of medium and small sized agencies, the market is highly fragmented. The top ten players in the UK market generated almost 55% of total revenues and 55% of the total pre-tax profits in the year 2004, and we estimate that the total revenue figures will reach £587 million the financial year 2005.
"While the size of the UK debt recovery industry has grown in line with the increase in...