CHRISTMAS may be over – but the financial cost of celebrating the festive season will remain with revellers for months to come, a survey has revealed.
Figures from insolvency industry body R3 suggest that almost a million people in Yorkshire expect to still be paying for their Christmas spending three months into the new year.
Nationally, more than 7m people fear they won’t have enough money to comfortably pay their bills at the end of the month due to Christmas spending.
That’s an increase of nearly 10% on last year’s figure.
The survey said that more than 5m people have borrowed money to pay for their Christmas festivities – an increase of 47% on 2009.
Within this group of borrowers, 43% of them fall into the 16 to 34 age bracket.
Andrew Walker, chairman of R3 in Yorkshire, said: “I am concerned that such large numbers are borrowing money or will be left struggling after Christmas has finished.
“With the VAT rise in January making spending more expensive, this will not give many a good start to 2011.
“It is worrying that younger generations – with perhaps generous motives – are saddling themselves with debts which then simply become a way of life.”
This time last year, almost 3m people admitted they were still paying off debts from the previous Christmas.
