MONEY COMMENT
Men Are Dicing With Debt

By Cliff D'Arcy
May 7, 2003

The latest report from a leading debt-counselling charity, the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS), makes for disturbing reading. In its fifth Debt Dashboard, the CCCS reveals the results of a survey of over 50,000 of its clients.

What emerges is that, across all age groups, single men have higher average non-mortgage debt levels than single women. For example, a male CCCS client aged between 25 and 39 has a typical debt of almost £15,000, compared with under £11,500 for a female in the same age group.

What's more, a typical single male CCCS client owes around 16.3 times his net monthly salary, compared to 13.7 for couples and 13.1 for single women. However, women appear to be more stressed about their finances in general and high debts in particular. Predictably, male pride often causes men to take longer to realise how much trouble they're in, so they frequently take longer to seek help.

In families with children, it is usually the mother who manages the household budget, which may explain why single men are not picking up the vital budgeting skills they need. Clearly, there is a growing need to teach young people about money management, something financial charity PFEG is doing.

Also, according to White Horse Mortgage Services, the UK's leading provider of mortgage arrears counselling, the five main reasons for people falling behind on mortgage repayments are:

• Financial mismanagement: 23.5%
• Reduced income (e.g. loss of overtime or bonuses): 22.5%
• Redundancy and unemployment: 18.6%
• Accident, sickness or injury: 9.8%
• Divorce and relationship breakdown: 8.7%

So, if you have more than your fair share of Britain's £844b debt mountain, you should learn how to diminish your debts before they do you harm!

Visit our Get Out Of Debt centre and Dealing With Debt discussion board.