Who needs debt advice? According to the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Credit Confidence survey, 27% of UK ‘credit customers' are concerned about their ability to repay debts in the future. 16% are already struggling to repay their current debts – but ‘relatively few' are willing to cut down on their everyday expenditure, or consolidate or restructure their debts.

PwC's ‘Precious Plastic 2009 – Consumer credit in the UK', the firm's annual commentary on the consumer credit market, looks at how the UK consumer finance market is being affected by the credit crunch, the problems in the banking sector and the downturn in the global economy.

Among many other subjects, the report looks at the UK's dependency on unsecured borrowing, and the growing trend of using bank overdrafts ‘to bridge the gap between living expenses and income'.

It adds that this is ‘set alongside an apparent reluctance among many UK households to either moderate their spending habits or restructure existing debt to make it more affordable'.

“Many people who really need debt advice may be unlikely to ask for it,” said a spokesperson for Debt Advisers Direct. “When someone contacts a debt adviser, they've effectively taken the first step – they've realised they have a debt problem. Of course, the sooner they do this, the easier it is (in general) for them to get the debt help they need to sort their financial problems out.

“If someone contacts a debt adviser when their debts are just starting to get out of hand, they may find it's relatively simple to regain control. They might need to make a few sacrifices, cut back on spending, miss out on a holiday, etc. On the other hand, people who wait until they're on the threshold of financial disaster may find they have very few options left.

“The important thing is to approach a professional debt adviser who understands the ‘ins and outs' of debt: everything from the different kinds of debt that exist (and the different rights and responsibilities that go with them) to the types of legal action that a borrower can face if they fail to repay their debts as agreed.

“At the same time, a professional debt adviser should be able to advise on the various debt solutions that can offer people a way to pay back their debts at an affordable rate.”

As the PwC report states: ‘Individuals in financial difficulty and facing possible bankruptcy need to obtain the best possible advice on the increasingly wide variety of options available to them such as IVAs [Individual Voluntary Arrangements] and DMPs [Debt Management Plans], taking in the threat of charging orders along the way.'

“Of course,” the Debt Advisers Direct spokesperson concluded, “in today's rapidly changing economic climate, it's difficult to know to what extent credit (and therefore debt solutions such as debt consolidation / remortgaging) will be available in the future. Yet, as ‘Precious Plastic' points out, it seems UK consumers ‘still do not fully understand the probable long-term impact of the market turmoil' – only 21% of the respondents in the Credit Confidence survey seemed worried about the future availability of credit.”