- 30
- Jun
More and more people are suffering from debt problems. Credit is becoming more and more difficult to come by and many people on fixed rate mortgages are going to come to face much higher mortgage repayments in the coming year.
Increased debt concerns are a growing problem for UK households and it is now feared that with the increase in debt there will be a corresponding rise in mental health issues.
It has been revealed that debt can trigger anxiety and stress, depression, self-harm and even suicidal thoughts.
Debt can easily spiral out of control, as it is as easy as missing just one payment and this can eventually lead to letters from debt collectors demanding that you pay back the entire loan. These letters are likely to be anxiety provoking as the letters become more and more intimidating. The combination of debt and creditor demands can lead to a massive build up of stress for many borrowers.
Lenders need to start being more aware of the anxiety that they can invoke in borrowers when constantly harassing them over repayments.
Experts are becoming increasingly aware of the mental health problems bad debt is creating and a code is beginning to be developed in order to protect customers with mental health issues.
The Money Advice Liaison Group (MALG) has published a ‘Debt management and debt collection in relation to people with mental health issues’. These guidelines are for money advisers, lenders and debt collectors on how to be more aware of mental health issues.
However, lenders are unlikely to be sympathetic to those who play the ‘mental health’ card as an excuse to not repay personal loans. Whilst this measure is of real help to those with genuine suffering, it is unlikely to allow bad debt clients to avoid their responsibilities.
