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The Government has already had to borrow £1,000 for every man, woman and child in Britain less than half way through the financial year.
In another set of grim public finance figures described by commentators as "dire", "dismal" and "depressing", borrowing hit £16.1billion in August.
It was the highest for the month and the third highest monthly total in history.
The Government has begged the financial markets for £65.3billion to keep public services going since April - £1,070 for every member of Britain's 61million population.
The UK's overall net debt is £804.8billion - an increase of £172billion in the past year - although more than £140billion of the rise is accounted for by bank bailouts.
The monthly borrowing total was not quite as bad as the City expected but many analysts fear the tally for the year will be higher than Alistair Darling's Budget forecast of £175billion.
Jonathan Loynes, chief European economist at forecaster Capital Economics, said the trend pointed to total borrowing of £220billion compared with last year's £88.1billion.
The yawning black hole in the Government's accounts has been caused by a rise in public spending - fuelled by payments to the five million people on benefits - coinciding with a collapse in tax receipts.
Monthly public spending was up by three per cent - twice the rate of inflation - from £44.3billion to £45.6billion. Benefit payments were £13.5billion, up from £12.6billion. Tax takings were down nine per cent from last year at £34.1billion as corporation and income tax suffered, bringing the fall in revenues to £23billion for the financial year so far.
VAT takings were down 16 per cent at £6.05billion, but this was largely due to the 2.5 per cent rate reduction last December.
Economists said there was little comfort to be taken from the figure being slightly better than forecast. Alan Clarke of BNP Paribas said: "It is no great surprise - a billion here or there each month is not going to make much difference."
But the Treasury said: "Today's figures are in line with our Budget forecasts. They reflect the impact of the global financial crisis as well as the action we are taking to support the economy."
