Most people start out with the belief that debt will not entrap them, but talk to some of these people several years later and debt will have taken a hold and changed a positive outlook without debt into one of misery and despair seeking IVAs and other debt solutions.

Laura's debt story

Laura was determined that she would never fall into the lair of debt. She stood by the motto ‘never spend what you do not have’ and saved diligently for everything that she wanted.

Raised by hard working parents who earned enough to keep the family fed and clothed, she had acquired first hand experience of saving for things rather than relying on credit. Her parents only bought goods with cash and never owed anyone money.

Equipped with this kind of upbringing, Laura should have been safe to go out into the big wide world and keep debt at bay, but things changed when she left home and started university.

Teachers and career advisors told her that student debt was an investment as it allowed her to study for a degree, and gain a more prosperous career. With this fact firmly brainwashed into her mind, Laura obtained a student loan.

Sharing accommodation with flatmates who were wealthier than her, Laura had to fit in and the only way to do this was to socialise with them. She often wondered how they managed to always have a constant supply of cash, but didn’t realise until much later, that they were receiving spending money from their parents.

Within weeks Laura had blown her student loan on drinks and clothes. She subsidised this by borrowing from her overdraft and cannot envisage a time when she will ever be in credit again. It's a familiar story that many young people are telling. By the time they graduate they've accumulated so much debt they are struggling to make ends meet with their first jobs as graduates.

The amount of young people seeking serious debt solutions like an IVA has increased, as the younger generation gets the motto to 'spend what they haven't yet earned' the second they walk through their universities gates.