Axa has said that all UK employees should be given an hour at work to help sort out their personal finances as a way of tackling the country's "enormous personal debt problem".

The firm has conducted research showing that the average employee already whiles away 14 hours a month on what it calls "social not-working" - ie texting or emailing friends, gossiping and using social networking sites such as Facebook while at work.

With this in mind, Axa has said that one hour a day given over to helping deal with debt couldn't hurt, not least because this could help many Britons who are facing up to the prospect of having to take out a bad credit mortgage.

"We all have to start taking greater responsibility for the financial state of the nation and employers can play a really important role.  With employees already spending some time on non-work related activities, giving them official time to take part needn’t result in a hit on productivity," said Pat Brady of Axa.

"In fact, we have seen through our pilot, that employees are actually more motivated as a result of this initiative," the Axa official added.

But with many employers having already banned the likes of Facebook in an attempt to crack down on more leisurely work pursuits, it remains to be seen how effective Axa's call will be.

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