Britons are finding themselves increasingly burdened by debt and are being forced to seek help from professionals.

Citizens Advice has reported that the number of people getting in touch for assistance increased by 15 per cent increase in January when compared with January 2006. Looking at England and Wales together, the organisation dealt with 83,000 new debt problems in January this year, which represents 3,700 every working day.

James Ketchell, a spokesperson for the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS), has observed a similarly dramatic increase in the number of problems relating to debt.

"In the last six months of 2006 we saw a 65 per cent increase in the number of people coming to us compared to the last six months of 2005. We had over 300,000 phone calls to our helpline last year, which is a lot," he said.

Mr Ketchell admits that this figure must be partly attributed to the increased accessibility of the CCCS. He is nevertheless concerned at the sheer scale of the problem in the UK.

"It is true that there are more people are running into debt trouble and I think those kind of issues need to be addressed as well," he added.

There is evidence, on the other hand, that credit card lending is beginning to fall, perhaps suggesting that Brits have had a rude awakening about their financial concerns.

"I think that it is one aspect of it. I think the majority of consumers are also very savvy and last year we saw a lessening in the amount of interest-free periods for new credit cards," Mr Ketchell observed.

"There has perhaps been an increase in fees and maybe people are starting to realise that using a credit card to make a purchase may not be their best option."

Statistics from the British Bankers' Association reveal that credit card borrowing fell by £500 million in January, continuing a fairly steady trend.

David Dooks, BBA director of statistics, said: "We can see that the January sales did not encourage borrowing on credit cards. As in the second half of last year, card borrowing is contracting and, with weaker retail sales being reported, this reflects the consumer's current attitude to spending and their commitments."

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