Londoners came to the charity for help with an average of £17,031 in unsecured debt. Across London, 42% of debtors faced contractual payments totalling over half their incomes.
However, the report, London in the red the financial circumstances of the more than 11,000 Londoners who contacted CCCS’s free debt advice helpline in 2011, but shows wide variations in financial difficulty across the city.
The average CCCS client in London had a monthly shortfall of £47, compared to an average surplus of £44 across the UK.
One in eight homeowners counselled by CCCS across London are behind on their mortgage, with residents of the North East London boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Havering and Redbridge suffering the highest arrears levels.
A charity said rental arrears hotspots include Hammersmith and Fulham, Tower Hamlets and Haringey, according to the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS). Across the capital, nearly one in eight renters – 12% – counselled by CCCS were in arrears.
Islington and Westminster are the only two boroughs where those counselled could cover their daily living costs, less debt repayments and demand for debt advice is particularly high in boroughs including Lewisham, Hackney and Newham.
Kensington and Chelsea – traditionally viewed as among the capital’s most financially secure areas – had the highest debt repayment burden, with more than half of clients spending over 50% of more their income servicing debt.
CCCS director of external affairs Delroy Corinaldi said: “When it comes to financial difficulty, London is a divided city – with even neighbouring boroughs having highly varied and complex personal debt problems.
“We are extremely concerned that the financial squeeze and high cost of living in the capital is making it increasingly difficult to repay existing debts. Hundreds of thousands of households may be about to fall, or may have already fallen, into difficulty as a result.”
