Since that time we have seen years of debt being sold to people, apparently irrespective of their ability to repay.

Consequently debt has been the largest single reason for clients seeking CAB support on an annual basis over the past 15 years.

More recent developments include banks being less patient in their negotiations with customers with unpaid loans.

Creditors are beginning to demand larger monthly nominal repayments to keep a debt "ticking over" until a temporary situation - whether sickness or unemployment - has been resolved.

Perhaps a more worrying development has been more charging orders on defaulters' houses being sought from the courts, as a quick measure of securing a debt.

Locally, the CAB is also dealing with an increase in issues related to the current economic situation, such as redundancy queries.

We have also dealt with an increase in bailiff letters being brought in to the bureaux as a result of Council Tax debts being chased very promptly.

A large proportion of the clients coming into the CAB find that their finances were settled into a manageable pattern until one element of their lives goes wrong.

It can then often be a sharp, short slope into financial chaos.

That is why Citizens Advice exists in part, to provide free, confidential and independent help, at the heart of the community.

Although Havant CAB is based at Leigh Park Community Centre, you can visit us every Wednesday between 10am and 2pm, at the United Reformed Church on Hollow Lane, Mengham.

By RICHARD SOLLY, chief executive Havant CAB