More people are seeking help with their debts

Exclusive research by Breakfast suggests that more than a quarter us are anxious about how to pay the bills.

And in addition to that, the country's biggest debt charity says it's seen a huge rise in requests for help. The number of people getting in touch with the Consumer Credit Counselling Service rose by 65% last year.

We want to hear from you today - are you struggling with debt and who do you blame? e-mail us now

Debt poll: summary

Breakfast's poll on personal debt levels in Britain was carried out by ICM.

Detailed breakdown of Breakfast's ICM poll results

ICM Research interviewed a random sample of 1003 adults aged 18-plus by telephone between 7and 8 February 2007.

Interviews were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults.

The poll suggests there has been 65% increase in the number of people seeking advice from the CCCS.

Over half those polled thought debt is associated with shame (more young people than old people).

More than three-quarters told researchers they thought young people won't be able to control their level of debt

And a quarter of us are worried about paying the bills.

Detailed breakdown of Breakfast's ICM poll results

Q1 Thinking about your own current financial position, to what extent are you worried or not worried about your ability to pay your bills?

73% are not worried about their ability to pay the bills
(NOTE: 81% in Scotland aren't worried about their ability to pay the bills)

Q2 Thinking about previous occasions when you have gone into debt, has this been to mainly cover expenses for the cost of living or mainly from the purchase of luxury items?

36% have never been in debt
(58% of over-65's have never been in debt, compared to 18% of 25-34 year olds 40% of DEs have never been in debt compared to 35% of ABs)

The under 34s are mainly in debt from buying luxury items
(45% of 25-34 yr olds + 37% of 18-24 yr olds)
32% of "DEs" are in debt because of the cost of living compared to 19% of "ABs"

Q3 Do you think that young people will or will not be able to control the level of debt?

77% say young people won't be able to control the level of debt
(83% of 55-64s say young people won't be able to control the level of debt, 26% of 18-24s say young people will be able to control the level of debt)

Q4 To what extent do you think people nowadays associate debt with shame or embarrassment?

54% think debt is associated with shame or embarrassment.
(70% of 18-24 year olds think debt is associated with shame, compared to 43% of over 65's; 30% of 18-24 year olds think there is no shame at all, compared to 54% of over 65's)

17% think there is a lot of shame (28% of 18-24 yr olds think there is a lot of shame compared to 19% of over 65's, 9% of ABs think there is a lot of shame, compared to 21% of DE)

45% say there is no shame at all
(54% of AB say there is no shame compared to 44% of DE)

Source: ICM Research, poll for Breakfast

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