PICTURE: Real national debt hits £143,000 per person

Embargoed: 00:01 Friday 5 March 2021

• The UK’s real national debt is much higher than suggested by Wednesday’s budget figures, at £9.6 trillion. This is over £143,000 per person.
  
  
• The total debt, which includes PFI and pension liabilities, is twice the size of the African economy, according to IMF figures. In £ coins, it could fill three and a half Wembley Stadiums.
  
  
• Campaigners protested outside HM Treasury, with a cutout showing the country weighed down by the £9.6 trillion debt.

Using data released in the chancellor’s budget on Wednesday, the TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA) have found that the real national debt will reach £9.6 trillion this year. It means our national debt is now over four times larger than the UK economy. 

The real national debt is equivalent to £344,216 per household, over five and a half times more than the average household debt including mortgages according to the Money Charity. It is also the equivalent of every person in the UK being saddled with £143,382 of debt. 

The real national debt is over 4 times larger than official forecasts, which put the figure at £2.5 trillion in the budget, and almost twice the size of the entire economy of Africa, according to IMF figures. That is because the real national debt estimates include areas of future spending that are not formally recognised in the official figures published in government accounts or by the ONS. These are unfunded state pension liabilities, unfunded public sector pension scheme liabilities, private finance initiative, and nuclear decommissioning costs.

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To mark the milestone, TPA campaigners appeared outside the Treasury with a cutout showing the UK weighed down by a £9.6 trillion debt ‘ball and chain’.

The enormous size of the debt - which in £ coins would fill more than three and a half Wembley Stadiums - makes the long-term stability of public finances a priority for the country after the covid pandemic.

Table: estimated UK real national debt, 2021-22

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Key Findings:

• In 2021-22 the real national debt will be £9.6 trillion. This is almost twice the economic output of the continent of Africa, which is £4.9 trillion, according to IMF figures.
  
  
• The real national debt is equivalent to more than four times the size of the UK economy, or 423 per cent of forecast nominal GDP.
  
  
• On a per household basis, the real national debt will equate to £344,216. On a per person basis, it is £143,382.
  
  
• The real national debt is made up of public sector net debt (PSND), unfunded state pension liabilities, unfunded public sector pension scheme liabilities, private finance initiative (PFI) and nuclear decommissioning costs.
  
  
• The official national debt (PSND) dramatically understates taxpayer liabilities. The real national debt is more than four times larger than this year’s forecast official national debt.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE HIGH RESOLUTION PHOTO

CLICK HERE TO READ THE BRIEFING NOTE

John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said:

"After the battering we’ve taken from covid, Britain’s debt level has reached an astronomical height.

“These numbers are a wake up call for the scale of the financial challenge facing us, not just today but for years into the future. 

“If long term measures are not taken to bring it down, this colossal debt ball and chain will only continue to weigh down taxpayers for generations.”

TPA spokesmen are available for live and pre-recorded broadcast interviews via 07795 084 113 (no texts)

Media contact:

Danielle Boxall
Media Campaign Manager, TaxPayers' Alliance
[email protected]
24-hour media hotline: 07795 084 113 (no texts)

Notes to editors:

1. Founded in 2004 by Matthew Elliott and Andrew Allum, the TaxPayers' Alliance (TPA) campaigns to reform taxes and public services, cut waste and speak up for British taxpayers. Find out more at www.taxpayersalliance.com.
   
   
2. TaxPayers' Alliance's advisory council.
   
   
3. Read the TaxPayers’ Alliance response to Wednesday's budget here.
   
   
4. The TaxPayers’ Alliance have found that the average tax burden is the highest in 70 years.
   
   
5. The Money Charity estimates the average household debt including mortgages in the UK to be £60,860 in December 2020.