People aged 35 - 44 years - typically adults with a young family to support - appear to be a group hard hit by the continuing recession, with one in four (25 per cent) saying a drop of just £300 in monthly income would cause them to default on their mortgage payment, according to independent research commissioned by Callcredit Information Group.
Commissioned by Callcredit, the YouGov research also shows that more than one in eight (13 per cent) adults in this age bracket has deliberately over-inflated their income when applying for credit in order to help them secure a higher credit limit, compared to less than one in ten (9 per cent) of the overall population.
Ten percent of those aged 35 - 44 have also taken out credit in past, knowing that they might not be able to meet the repayments.
The research also showed a noticeable reduction in the proportion of people paying off their credit card bills in full each month, with one in twenty (5 per cent) people who previously paid their bills in full now paying just the minimum or a fixed amount. This rises to one in fourteen (7 per cent) people aged 35 - 44 years.
"These statistics are extremely alarming," said Graham Lund, managing director at Callcredit Information Group.
"A significant proportion of people aged 35 - 44, many of who may have families to support, are living on a financial precipice, where just one negative event, such as a reduction in paid overtime or an unexpected expense could have disastrous financial consequences.
"What is of real concern is that some people are deliberately over-inflating their income when applying for credit in order to increase their credit limit. Credit limits, which are determined by individual lenders, are assessed on how much an applicant can realistically afford.
“If the borrower is inflating their income significantly and then maxes out their high credit limit, they are running a serious risk of getting into financial difficulties and being unable to repay the debt.
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