With the budget due to be revealed on March 24th, I was wondering what effect overall, it would have, if any at all, on the general situation of consumers suffering financial difficulty. What assistance can the country expect as a whole to help with the trade deficit and the economy? Of course, although the UK is now beginning to rise from the ashes of economic decline like a phoenix spreading its fiscal wings, the budget will hit the general populace in the pocket, as always.

Preliminary expectations are not looking good really.  From what we can gather so far, as well as the usual and expected raise in prices for cigarettes, alcohol, petrol, etc there will be some cuts in general spending on much needed public service although the government has pledged support in this regard.  I understand how this is all designed to line the coffers of the politicians, sorry, reduce the overall debt of the country and I can fully understand how this is all longer term going to assist us in definitively reducing the trade deficit but does it affect the man on the street in a good way? I mean financially, does it mean anything for the average family?  In my experience most, if not all budgets have only assisted in making the overall picture look as gloomy as it does today for man, woman and 2.4 kids.  No tax breaks, no increases in tax credits or income support and certain increases in prices, along with the recent return to the 17.5% VAT rate all combine to increase the misery and the general feeling that the Government has no idea as to what the average voter actually wants.  Oh well, as long as middle and upper class Great Britain are OK.

Most budgets are designed as a sop to the voting, middle class masses anyway and many of the incentives and good things that have come about in recent budgets have been designed to win votes but with this pre election budget Alastair Darling has decided that Labour can't look any worse than they do now anyway and any grand gestures will be seen as clearly trying to curry favor so don't expect much. With the fault of the economic crisis in the UK lying firmly in the lap of the Labour Government any big gestures would be futile in any case, it would simply be seen as too little, too late.  For the average working family this budget will hold very little in the way of making things look better and I can only see additional pennies on the pound coming out of your pay packet, stealth tax's on general living expenses and the obligatory price rises on the simple pleasures in life such as a good glass of wine! I will certainly be surprised if we come out of this budget financially better off than we are now.

Have you ever taken a look at the actual remedies or potential cures for debt issues that are available? I'm sure that you probably have and if you're like me you will undoubtedly have come into contact with the phrase debt consolidation loan.  I, like many of the consumers suffering financial difficulty in the UK have taken on a debt consolidation loan in my debt afflicted past.  When I was in a worse situation than I am now, I managed to get myself a debt consolidation loan from my primary creditor and to be fair, it was a good way to manage things.

A debt consolidation loan pays off all your debts.  that basically means that it frees you from the burden of making repayments to credit cards and unsecured loans mostly. These can be on an unsecured basis but in most cases they will be secured on your home and you should never forget that it will become a much bigger issue if you default on making repayments to a debt consolidation loan as well.  It could be considered that you are loading yourself with another debt and there is obviously the danger of losing your home if you default repayments on this loan, however, it will give you one affordable monthly payment on one amount and that will quite often give you the breathing space you need to look at things differently.

A recent survey has confirmed a dramatic increase in the amount of the average non mortgage debt in the UK, particularly over the last 15 years, a symptom of a credit sodden society.  The average amount for every single person in the UK now stands at over £4,000 in unsecured finance.  This seems relatively small but when you consider that this is for every single person in the UK you begin to get an idea of the scale of the unsecured lending undertaken in the UK on a yearly basis. In terms of secured lending, mortgages secured on an almost 100% basis have also contributed greatly to the huge amount of personal financial difficulty suffered by a large percentage of the populace.

Imagine the interest accrued each month on say, a £200,000 mortgage? It is this very interest, every month, that adds to the burden of repayments of your debts. It can take many years to pay-off even a relatively small loan along with thousands of pounds in interest. In such a case, if you’re finding it difficult to pay-off the existing loan amount or struggling to cope with even your minimum repayments on loans and credit cards, a debt consolidation loan will most definitely help you.

A debt consolidation loan, whether from your bank or another lender, pays you a lump sum that can usually be paid back over an agreed period of time, often longer than usual. Most reputable debt consolidation companies also usually charge a lower interest rate than other loan providers. This lets you pay more on the actual debt amount each month.  However, as with everything financial there are the good and the bad. Debt consolidation companies haven't, to be fair, received the best or most credible media attention lately and mostly because of the actions of a few bad eggs, such as companies that promise you lower repayments and eventually just end up increasing the repayment term by reducing the amount needed to be paid each month and thereby charging more interest over the longer term.  It also pays to know the APR offered by the company as there is no point considering the loan if the APR is higher than the loan you already have!

Debt consolidation could be for you, it might not be, but it will certainly be worth considering as you look at the ways you can reduce your overall debt.

This video is the weekly debt and money management news round up from a site called Eurodebt.  A fantastic idea highlighting recent news and events relevant to the financial situation now faced by millions in the UK, particularly after the credit crunch and last years economic crisis.

A series of short videos posted on a weekly basis by a very knowledgeable, relevant and informative source, I would highly recommend taking a look and seeing if any of the stories posted impact on your own financial predicament. I will be trying to keep up to date and post these videos on a regular basis as I feel that they reflect closely the subject matter of this site and are most definitely a worthwhile addition.

Why not watch the latest video posted for an up to date look at the latest financial and debt management stories.