- Tuesday, 2 February 2010Debt management plans may help the increasing number of self-employed struggling with debt issues.
The Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) reports that there has been a surge in calls to its helpline over the last month from people running their own business.
The debt charity states that it received 739 calls from the self-employed in January, a 78 per cent increase from December, with 415 calls from the same sector of the workforce.
Commenting on the figures, CCCS helpline manager Laura Carver said: "We have received thousands of calls from self-employed and sole traders over the past year and heard a lot of stories of people struggling to manage their personal debts while running a business.
"But this spike shows that there is a growing and serious debt problem among self-employed people," she added.
The charity's helpline is reported to have received 6,596 calls from people who were self-employed between February 2009 and January 2010.
Meanwhile, new CCCS research reveals that many workers appear to be struggling with "recession depression".
The study found 23 per cent of businesses claim that the recession has affected employee stress levels, contributing to a rise in long term absence rates.
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