In this latest in our series of article about UK people I focus on younger people, typically the 18-30 year olds. Recent figures now estimate that the average level of unsecured debt for this age group is almost £8000. This is usually accumulated across credit cards, overdrafts and loans. However the picture may not be as bad as you would first assume, because student loans make up almost 50% of this debt. Students in the UK have now accepted that they will build up a level of debt as they progress through the final part of their education, but the concern I have is that many have no real awareness of how high these levels of debt are. A little sound advice on controlling the debt and options they have for repaying should be a pre-requisite before any credit is offered.

For Students though, financial difficulty was the reason that 34% of them quoted would make them consider dropping out of courses.

The average student debt on graduation is now thought to be over £13,000.

Looking back over the past 4 years the rate of bankruptcy in this age group has grown from 7.9% to 18.7%.

The FSA (Financial Services Authority) recently commissioned a report into the area and found that of all 16-24 year olds, almost 30% said they wouldn't know how to budget their weekly finances. Almost two-thirds of them wouldn't know the organisations they could go to for help if they got into financial difficulties and only half of all 16 year olds had been taught how to manage money. Credit cards are just as much an issue for this age group as for any other, with almost 60% admitting that they go over budget when they use debit or credit cards.

Finally another figure from the Consumer Credit Counselling Service last year – the level of debt is slightly higher for young males than females, but the females have the higher number of individual debts.