To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what estimate he has made of the number of consumers of working age experiencing difficulties gaining access to consumer credit, excluding mortgages, from mainstream providers as a result of the state of the credit market. (206699)

We do not have specific statistics relating to estimates of working age consumers experiencing consumer credit difficulties.

However, the Bank of England reports total debt write-off for 2007 of £6,807 million, a small increase on 2006 (£6,749 million). In the last quarter of 2007 (latest data available), a total of £1,616 million debt was written off compared to £1,986 million in quarter 4 2006.

We remain very concerned to help those suffering from debt problems. In the last spending period, over £50 million was spent on face-to-face debt advice, for those experiencing difficulties with consumer credit, by BERR and MOJ. This will increase to £90 million in the period April 2005 to March 2011. Help is aimed at the financially excluded, of whatever age, and so far around 120,000 over-indebted clients have been helped, up until the end of March. BERR and MOJ will also support the National Debtline this year with grants of £1.75 million.