Debt and the Middle Class – Guest Post

The middle class usually braves the onslaught of economic turmoil mostly unscathed, but this particular crisis seems to have brought harsher times for people across the spectrum. The worst part of it though is that most of the middle class don’t fall into the “benefit class” that their taxes have paid for in the preceding years.

In an interview to the Telegraph, Kay Boycott, the director of policy at the housing and homelessness charity Shelter, said, “The threat of homelessness happens to someone every two minutes. And that’s not just ‘I’m in mortgage arrears or difficulties with my rent’. That’s ‘I’ve received a letter about eviction or repossession’.”

Most stories follow a similar pattern of losing a steady job, struggling to make ends meet alongside mortgage payments, loans and other debts only to receive a foreclosure statement from the bank in the mail. The results too, run along the lines of declaring bankruptcy and eventual repossession and sale of their homes, leaving them penniless with nowhere to go. People who own homes have always been thought to be more secure than rent payers, but that is now changing.

Crisis, a homelessness charity found in a survey conducted in December that 1 in 4 people were worried about losing their homes.
Job centers cannot help these people usually, as they aren’t meant for the average middle class citizen. Councils that can put them on the housing lists usually list them as “low priority” because they aren’t old, raising young children or mentally ill. This leaves them in the lurch with nowhere to go.

Bankruptcy and debt are as much an emotional state of mind as they are financial problems. Once caught in the downward spiral, most people lose confidence and motivation as one stroke of bad luck seemingly follows the next.

Priyanka Zaveri is a freelance writer, online marketer and SEO consultant. Priyanka writes for many online publications, as well as developing content and articles for a variety of well-established websites. Her latest project is writing informative articles on the subject of Debt Collectionfor the reputable online agency CBC International.

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