Last updated 12:00, Thursday, 05 June 2008

THE rising cost of living is beginning to hit Furness families hard with more people in debt and having their homes repossessed.

Latest figures revealed County Court Judgements in Barrow have risen by 113 per cent between January and March this year – the third highest increase in the UK.

There were 151 people taken to court compared to 71 in the same period last year.

House repossessions also went up by 10 per cent from last year.

Colin Henderson, community housing solicitor for Citizens Advice Bureau South Lakes, represents people who are facing home repossession orders and CCJs at Barrow and Kendal county courts.

He says the tightening of the credit belt has pushed the number of repossessions up, particularly in Barrow.

Mr Henderson said: “Credit was so easy to get up to just 12 months ago that people in the town who were not working, or on incapacity benefit, were offered mortgages to buy their council homes by smaller lending firms specialising in people with a poor credit history.

“Many of these people have now defaulted because they were never in a safe position to be able to meet the repayments in the first place.

“It would have been better for them to remain as tenants.”

Mr Henderson wants all homeowners facing repossession to attend court hearings rather than agreeing with their mortgage company to pay back arrears at an unaffordable rate.

He said: “This will make matters worse in the long run.

“In most cases we can agree a lower rate of arrears repayment through a judge than if you do a private deal with the mortgage lender itself.”

Peter Young, debt advice supervisor at Barrow’s Citizens Advice Bureau, said: “We tend to have a consistent stream of people coming in for help and advice. I can’t say we have noticed a massive increase but sometimes it isn’t until they get the CCJ that they finally seek help, so we could be faced with an influx in coming weeks and months.

“What I have noticed is the increase in house repossessions. They are definitely on the up as are debt for council tax and rent.

“I’m not sure if it’s the credit crunch but there are more and more people on benefits getting into trouble with rent.

“It tends to be those renting in the private sector where they only get benefits to pay a certain amount of their rent and have to pay the shortfall themselves, say £10 to £15 a week.

“They just don’t pay it and it mounts. They ignore the letters and before they know it they owe £500, £1,000 then £1,500.

“CCJ people tend to ignore most of the letters sent. They tend to think it’s just another creditor after money and bury their head in the sand. It’s often not until after the event they finally contact us. They should be getting in touch as soon as things go wrong, but so many don’t.”

Lucy Fearon, of Furness Independent Financial Advisers, based in Duke Street, Barrow, said the most important thing is being aware of what you owe and being prepared for when your mortgage deal comes to an end.

She said: “It is not how much you owe but how you pay it back. People have come in and said they are not aware of the effect that just one missed payment can have. People have come off rates and then gone on to higher rates where repayments have jumped up.

“You need to look at when your mortgage deal is coming to an end and a good three months before dig your paperwork out.”