Financial problems are nothing new, as the increase in popularity of bad credit first time mortgages shows, but what about the reasons behind such trends? Abbey thinks that the answers could be pretty simple.

Abbey Current Accounts research has shown that almost five million UK adults wouldn't pass a basic personal finance exam - ie they'd score less than 40 per cent.

The average score was 60 per cent, with almost half not knowing about concepts such as negative equity.

"[The results were] quite worrying given we selected questions that we felt everyone with a bank account should know," said Abbey head of Banking Steve Shore.

The amount owed by Britons is now more than GDP for the first time ever, Grant Thornton revealed today, while Nationwide suggested that house prices were to fall in line with wage growth over the next few months due to pressure from higher interest rates.

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