Personal debt levels soar - Telegraph "Increased debt levels highlight, along with extended squeezed purchasing power, why consumer spending remains so limited compared to pre-crisis levels," Mr Archer said. The extended need for consumers to deleverage is likely to limit the upside for consumer spending for some time to come, and hence constrain overall growth prospects. Young households were those that saw the biggest increase in their debt burden. The average debt for households where the oldest member was between 25 and 34 rose from £4,000 to £4,300, the highest of all age groups, with almost three quarters - 73..9pc - bearing some form of non-mortgage financial liability. Households where the head was younger than 25 also saw a giant leap in their average debt level - from £1,900 to £2,900. Mr Archer claimed conditions for households had worsened since the period the survey covered. "Another recent survey from the ONS shows that the economic position of households hit a five-year low in the first quarter of 2012 ... [and that] in the third quarter of 2012 real income per head was still 2.4pc below the peak level seen in mid-2009," he said. The ONS figures exclude the bulk of the nation's borrowing, though. Over 11m households have mortgage debt worth around £1.2 trillion. Financial debt is also largely outweighed by the financial assets most households have - through ISAs, savings, personal pension plans, and stock market investments, the ONS survey showed. As would be expected, only one fifth of pensioners had any financial liabilities at all and those that were indebted had the lowest amount of personal borrowing - at £1,100 on average. They also had the largest amount in savings. Regionally, households in Wales had the lowest levels of debt, with average levels of £2,000 and the second lowest proportion of households with any debt at all. London had the highest proportion of debtors.