Debt And Unemployment
Unemployment in the UK
A further 39,300 signed on in May, taking the number of people claiming jobseeker's allowance to 1.554 million.
Unemployment has now risen to its highest level in more than 12 years as UK companies continue to make redundancies or worse still, fail.
Data from the Office for National Statistics showed the total number of people out of work rose by 232,000 in the three months leading up to April, to 2.261 million, this pushed the unemployment rate to 7.2% – the highest since July 1997.
A labour force survey last month also showed that the number of people in employment fell by 271,000 between February and April.
So with such uncertainty in the labour market its not surprising that the No:1 concern plaguing men in Mind’s survey was ‘job security’.
Conservative MP Robert Syms, believes the first step to helping people is to “nurse” the economy back to health.
Personal debt
It was revealed last month that bankruptcy levels in England and Wales had reached the highest on record. The financial crisis and recession is forcing more and more people into insolvency.
Figures were released by the Insolvency Service in June, and are evidence of just how serious the financial situation has become for many people as the recession continues to deepen.
The Insolvency Service report showed that during the first three months of this year there were over nineteen thousand bankruptcies and almost eleven thousand Individual Voluntary Arrangements across England and Wales.
However, it is the over-45s that are experiencing the biggest rise in bankruptcies.
Multiple marriages and falling house prices are believed to be the root cause in the sudden rise.
The number of individuals in that age group going bankrupt increased by 124% between 2004 and 2008, rising from 10,600 to 23,800, according to an analysis by accountancy firm Wilkins Kennedy, on figures produced by the Insolvency service.
Over the same period the total number of bankruptcies rose by 89% to 67,500.
Samaritan volunteer Liz has been with the charity since 1985 and has witnessed the impact a recession has on the level of calls they receives.
