Case studies and other evidence
The National Audit Office carried out its own primary research
on over-indebtedness. The data and findings from our research
are available from this page. It includes:
- A survey of 1,361 consumers
- In depth interviews with 20 consumers
The survey
We commissioned GfK-NOP to run a survey of
over-indebted consumers. The survey was carried out with
three different over-indebted groups:
- Over-indebted consumers screened from a
representative sample of the population of England and Wales
- Over-indebted consumers who were users of
debt support services. We worked with Citizens Advice,
National Debtline and the Consumer Credit Counselling Service to
recruit these respondents.
- Over-indebted consumers from the electronic
individual insolvency register.
The survey identified four clusters: the
"worried well", the "worried and at risk", the "over-indebted" and
the "highly over-indebted". The identification of these clusters is
useful because they display different characteristics and give
information on the particular problems that each group has. For
example, the "worried well" have the highest level of educational
attainment, suggesting the greatest ability to self help. A greater
understanding of the population could allow an improved ability to
target resources on those areas which will have the greatest
impact.
The NAO found that in many cases the
"worried well" and the "worried and at risk" shared similar
characteristics. Where this was the case we grouped these
clusters into one category that we called "worriers".
Similarly the "over-indebted" and the "highly over-indebted" shared
similar characteristics. Where this was the case we grouped
these clusters into one category that we called "badly hit".
The badly hit tend to be younger, whilst
worriers tend to be older. The badly hit are more likely to
be on a lower income. The highly over-indebted are the most
vulnerable as they are more likely to be unemployed or unable to
work because of a long-term sickness or disability, and most likely
to be living in social housing. The badly hit are also more
likely to have financially dependent children. Worriers are
more likely to have a higher level of educational attainment than
the badly hit.
Read a more detailed report on our analysis of
the representative sample (PDF - 97kb).
Download the raw data from the survey in SPSS
format:
The interviews
In addition, we carried out 20 qualitative
depth interviews with respondents who had taken part in the
survey. Read the qualitative
interview write-ups (PDF - 981kb).