Record debtors seeking advice

The group saw a 20% increase in people contacting it because they were struggling with their borrowings, handling a total of 1.7 million cases during 2006/07.

It said the level of people who needed help with debt had doubled during the past 10 years, with debt now the most common problem its bureaux dealt with, overtaking benefit problems for the first time.

Debt now accounts for one in three of all enquiries that CAB receives, with the group's advisers in England and Wales dealing with more than 6,600 debt problems every working day.

Citizens Advice warned that there was no let up in the rising toll of casualties from the credit boom and recent sharp increases in the cost of living.

Credit card debt and problems with unsecured loans dominated the enquiries it received, accounting for 40% of CAB's debt caseload, with one in four debt enquiries relating to credit and store cards.

Overall, consumer credit problems rose by 14%, while problems with overdrafts and loans increased by more than 18%. At the same time the number of people asking the group about going bankrupt soared by 50%.

But Citizens Advice, which is the UK's largest provider of free, independent debt advice, said its figures also indicated that hundreds of thousands of people were increasingly struggling to meet their day-to-day living expenses.

It said problems with people falling behind with their gas and electricity bills jumped by more than a third during the year, while those with council tax arrears rose by 25% and telephone debt problems were up by 19%. The group also saw an 11% rise in people falling behind on mortgage and other secured debt repayments.

The figures were published as part of the group's Advice Week, which focuses on raising funds and recruiting the 5,000 new volunteers Citizens Advice Bureaux need each year.