The Financial Services Authority has cast its predictions for 2009’s debt situation.
The organisation based its estimates on 2008, midway through which 312,000 secured loans were in arrears.
The FSA estimates that at the end of 2009, 500,000 households with be more than three months behind on their secured loan repayments.

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National Debtline, the government-funded debt advice service, reports a sharp rise in the amount of calls received.
The organisation received an average of 16,000 calls per month in 2007.
In November 2008, it received around 23,000 per month.
Chief executive Paul Mullins said that the number of people seeking advice because they were in arrears on secured loan [...]

A recent survey by financial firm PwC finds that banks are increasingly using charging orders.
A charging order is a court order, with which banks convert unsecured lending to secured loans.
PwC claim that charding orders have increased from 10,000 in 200 to 97,000 in 2007, which is a 45% on 2006.
This converts to 500 charding orders [...]