Demand for bankruptcy and debt advice `has risen`

The number of enquiries received by Citizens Advice concerning debt and bankruptcy is on the rise, according to new figures.

Debt problems were said to have remained the biggest area of consumer concern, with a total of 1.93 million new debt problems registered in its bureaux between April 2008 and March 2009.

This represented an increase of 11 per cent compared with the previous 12-month period.

In addition, there was a 24 per cent rise in enquiries relating to bankruptcy.

According to Citizens Advice, there were 137,406 such queries posed by consumers in 2008-09, compared with 110,819 in 2007-08.

Responding to the statistics, chief executive of the charity, David Harker, said: "It is ... absolutely vital that all lenders and creditors treat people in arrears fairly and sympathetically, negotiate with borrowers in trouble and do everything they can to help ease their debt problems and avoid adding to them."

Citizens Advice operates a network of 426 bureaux in England and Wales, with a further 22 in Northern Ireland.