Calls to money advice helpline hit six-year high

Calls to the State’s money advice helpline, established to assist people dealing with problem debt reached a six-year high in 2017, figures have revealed.

Quarterly statistics released by the Money Advice and Budgeting Service (Mabs) show that 24,659 calls were made to its helpline last year, which is a rise of almost 20% on the 20,611 calls received in 2016.

It is the highest number of calls received by the helpline since 2011, when it handled 29,636 calls from the public.