Britons seek help on redundancy issues

Posted 09/06/2009

A growing number of people in the UK are looking for help and support on how to cope with redundancy.

According to Citizens’ Advice, there was a 114 per cent increase in the number of enquiries relating to job losses during the year to March 2009.

Meanwhile, there was a 24 per cent surge in the number of people seeking help on coping with bankruptcy.

David Harker, chief executive of the charity organisation, cited this as evidence that the economic downturn is having a considerable human impact.

He has therefore called on financial providers to take this into account when dealing with people who are experiencing debt problems.

“It is vital that lenders and creditors treat people fairly and sympathetically,” he commented.

Mr Harker urged them to do everything they can to ease people’s problems, rather than add to them even more.

This week, chancellor of the exchequer Alistair Darling told the Guardian he expects unemployment to continue rising this year.