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<p>Household debt as a proportion of income is down significantly from its pre-crisis
peak, from 160% in Q1 2008 to 140% in Q1 2018.</p><p>The government is working to
support those on lower incomes by putting in measures to improve living standards
and making it easier to access help with financial matters. The National Living Wage
has increased the earnings of the lowest paid full time worker by over £2,000 since
2016, and real household disposable income per person is now 3.4% higher than the
start of 2010.</p><p>The government is also setting up a new Single Financial Guidance
Body, which will provide consumers with a single point of contact for help with all
financial matters, and have a statutory responsibility to improve the public’s financial
capability.</p><p>However, we recognise that, despite this action, some people can
fall into problem debt. That is why the government-commissioned Money Advice Service
is spending over £56m to provide debt advice to at least 530,000 people this year,
and we are introducing a breathing space scheme to provide people with unmanageable
debt protection from creditor action so they can seek debt advice and enter into a
sustainable debt solution.</p>
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