Sandwell and Cannock named among biggest 'debt hotspots'

The charity, which has helped almost half a million people with debt over the last year, made the hotspot findings after analysing the cries for help with debt that it received across England and Wales between July and September.

It is also seeing evidence that the reasons why people are sinking into levels of debt that they cannot cope with are changing.

The body said that since the economic crisis, problems with consumer debt such as credit cards and personal loans have fallen significantly. By contrast, problems with "priority debts" such as rent arrears and council tax debts are growing.

For example, in 2007/08, around one in five debt problems reported to Citizens Advice were credit card or store card-related. That proportion has since halved to around one in 10 and has been overtaken by the share of people with debt problems who are in council tax arrears.

As many people's budgets remain on a knife-edge despite the recovering economy, the charity is seeing increasing numbers of people tipped into problem debt by their everyday living costs rather than the trigger being a particular life event such as the loss of a job or a divorce.

The charity dealt with 336 clients in Cannock Chase between July and September, equating to 0.43 per cent of the adult population there. And in Sandwell, 1,015 sought advice, which also equates to 0.43pc of the borough's population.

Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said: "Times have changed, and so have people's debt problems.

"Consumer debts like credit cards and personal loans have traditionally been the most common debt problems that come through our doors. But now priority debts such as council tax arrears are gradually building up as people struggle to cover everyday costs.

"In the past, people were more likely to get help for debt problems triggered by life events such as illness, redundancy or separation.

"But in recent years more people are being pushed into debt as they struggle to stretch their income to cover everyday living costs."

Here are the biggest debt hotspots across England and Wales, according to Citizens Advice, with the number of people it helped between July and September, and also expressed as a percentage of the local adult population: