BARROW’S debt crisis will spike in January as Christmas bills hit doormats, officials have warned.

People who splashed out on the “perfect Christmas” are expected to start seeking help in the days to come, a council meeting heard.

Barrow Citizens Advice officers said money management often fell by the wayside at Christmas – but large bills would now start to arrive.

Lucy Mayou, advice services manager, said there was always a sharp rise in people presenting with debt problems from mid-January.

She told a meeting of Barrow local committee: “During the festive period, people become focussed on delivering the perfect Christmas, and debt advice and seeking help from us is often the last thing on their minds.”

She said changes to benefits – including Universal Credit which was paid monthly rather than weekly – contributed to financial disarray

“It’s very easy to see why somebody who has little or no surplus income may make decisions to use that money to fund a consumer Christmas. We find a lot of people will use money that should be for rent or living expenses to try and fund the ideal Christmas.

“When the reality of the situation starts to hit home and bills start landing on doormats, we see a real spike from mid-January.”

New figures show that between April and December last year, 246 people in the Barrow area sought help from CAB for debts totalling £1.1 million.

Cllr Bill McEwan, the mayor of Barrow, said the figures were “shocking” and praised the work of CAB.

And Walney’s Cllr Mel Worth said: “We have greater personal debt than we had in 2008-09 and the Government’s national debt has more than doubled. Goodness knows what all these people would be doing if it wasn’t for citizens advice. We thank you for that.”

The meeting was told that some people did not have the skills to get out of debt, particularly those with health problems or mental health issues.

Cllr Sol Wielkopolski said more work was needed to prevent people getting into trouble.

He said: “We need to get the prevention agenda out there. If we care about it, and I think we all do, we need to find some money to make some inroads.” Cllr Ben Shirley said it was “truly alarming” that the debt-to-income ratio in Barrow was so high.

“I’d like to see us do everything we can to support Citizens Advice and if that means more money, we should do everything in our power to find some,” said Cllr Shirley, the Conservative representative for Dalton North.