Mortgage arrear enquiries concerning CAB officials
9 April 2008Officials from the Cab have expressed concern over the level of consumers that are contacting the bureau regarding mortgage arrears and other financial matters, stating that debt related enquiries are now the most common matter that they deal with. CAB officials state that the effects of the credit crunch and rising living costs have resulted in an increase in the number of struggling households, which has resulted in more people contacting them about remortgage payments and other money matters.
A CAB official commented on the situation, stating: “It is a worrying trend that our bureaux are reporting very sharp increase in the number of mortgage loan arrears problems they are dealing with.” She also said: “The combination of big increases in household bills, especially fuel, and rising housing costs is putting additional pressure on people’s finances when they are already stretched to the limit.”
A survey was recently carried out on three hundred CAB offices across the country, and this revealed that the level of debt related enquiries had gone up by 35% over the months of January and February compared to the same period in 2007. Over 2006 and 2007 the CAB dealt with nearly six million new problems, and a third of these were regarding debt related issues.
The surge in the number of people seeking advice about mortgage arrears and general debt is thought to be the result of higher mortgage costs, resulting from a series of interest rate rises between August 2006 and July 2007, as well rising energy bills, higher food costs, increased credit card spending and higher petrol prices, all of which have impacted heavily on household finances.