Young people now face ten years of debt, new study finds

As many as 11% of people between 18 to 25 years old think they will never be able to repay their debts

(Images Money/flickr/Creative Commons)

Young people between the ages of 18 and 25 are facing ten years of debt, many on top of student loans and mortgages.

One in five of so-called Millennials say it will take them more than ten years to pay off personal debt, according to a poll of more than 4,000 adults by YouGov, commissioned by Big Data Scoring, a cloud-based service that lets consumer lenders improve loan quality and acceptance rates through the use of big data.

As many as 11 per cent think they will never be able to repay it.

Young people living in Wales and London are most likely to have debt, with 29 per cent reporting no personal debt.

Millennials from the East of England have the lowest debt, with 38 per cent having no debt at all.

Erki Kert, CEO at Big Data Scoring, who supplement traditional bank and lender credit checks with big data analysis, believes that rising debts can be attributed to a lack of data when assessing loan suitability.

“Having too much debt is a consequence of the current failings when it comes to credit scoring young people and highlights the need for action to ensure people are given what they need but also what they can afford,” Mr Kert said.

A separate survey of 2,000 people by Gocompare.com, an insurance comparison company, showed that the average amount owed by young people from 18 to 25 is £3,109.

Under half of the young people surveyed by Gocompare.com had debts that didn’t include student loans and/or mortgages.

Bank overdrafts (38 per cent) and credit card bills (31 per cent) were the most common forms of money woes.

On in five respondents said they got into debt by borrowing from their parents, 19 per cent from personal loans and 11 per cent from taking out payday loans.

A 2014 report by the Financial Ombudsman Service showed that customers complaining about payday lenders were far more likely to be drawn from the 25-34 age group than any other.

Older generations are now richer than their children, according to research by the Resolution Foundation. For the first time since figures began in 2006, people aged 65 to 74 hold a bigger slice of total household wealth than the under 45s.