While many citizens of the United Kingdom are dealing with their personal debt as best they can, new surveys are beginning to suggest that the overall amount of personal debt in the country is beginning to slow down. The current economic financial crisis is seeing more and more people start to count their pennies and setting them aside for a ‘rainy day' instead of spending them as fast as they can. This has helped the debt situation start to slow down and possibly avoid it spiralling any further out of control than it already is.

According to research done by Credit Action, a non-profit debt management group in the United Kingdom, personal debt at the end of January 2009 was at £1.46 trillion. This is an increase of £42 billion since figures were collected in 2008. However, the £42 billion increase is still less than the £116 billion increase in personal debt that was seen between January 2007 and 2008, showing that the numbers are slowing and potentially starting to come down.

The biggest area that reflected a decrease in spending was the housing sector. Secured lending growth dropped on homes by 0.6% at the end of January 2009. The percentage of personal debt that is now related to housing is only 2.8%. Property and the housing market in the United Kingdom has been in a freefall for over a year as a result of the falling housing market and credit crunch that also affected the United States. While interest rates for mortgages are seeing a significant low, many people are not chancing securing loans in fear of losing their jobs due to the economy and not being able to make their payments.

Additionally, Credit Action's survey is seeing some disheartening numbers coming to light where employment is concerned. They believe that during 2009 alone as the recession becomes deeper, one in thirty-three people that work in the United Kingdom are looking at being unemployed before the end of the year. Already many families are dealing with redundancy issues and trying to make ends meet on single salaries or no salaries while looking for new jobs. Calls to debt management companies for help have increased as has the number of bankruptcies and IVAs that are being filed.

Much of the recession that is currently hitting the United Kingdom can be blamed on the fall of the banking sector at the end of 2008. Most of the world's other countries are also feeling the impact of the banking sector's fall and are experiencing a negative growth. The collapse acted like a domino effect until governments stepped in to help halt the increasing recession that has left the world reeling in debt and confusion.

Because of the current level of financial uncertainty that is sweeping the globe, many banks and financial institutions have had to rein in the levels of borrowing among individual consumers to stem the flow of debt. They have put into place measures for making borrowing more difficult in an effort to not only protect their investments but also to protect the consumer.