Credit Crunch

Credit crunch reponsible for suicides

The recent death by suicide of a father of two, Karl Harrison, aged 40, is being blamed on the credit crunch.

Harrison of Amlwch, North Wales, fell into arrears on his mortgage and council tax and was frantically worried that he would lose his family home.

It was stated at an inquest into his death that the father of two hung himself in his garden shed after reportedly being “harassed” by debt collectors. North Wales Coroner Dewi Pritchard-Jones warned that more suicides could follow due to the current state of Britain’s economy.

“It is becoming an increasingly common feature in cases like these for there to be mortgage problems because of the economic situation — the credit crunch. I expect there will be more of these cases in the future” he said.

Karl’s devastated wife Julie, told the inquest in Llangefni how her husband had fallen into a depression following losing his job as a quantity surveyor because of the downturn in the housing market.

The issue of a rise in suicide rates during times of recession isn’t limited to the UK of course and in the US, Good Morning America reporter Chris Cuomo explained that personal finances of some US citizens, ”have people so stressed, they are developing health problems.” His report continued and he stated that,

“The link between financial troubles and psychological problems is well documented,” he added that, “In the U.S. the seminal example is the Great Depression, when the suicide rate jumped from 14 to 17 for every 100,000 Americans,” stated Cuomo.

“And today, with the threat of recession looming large, the price we pay physically may skyrocket as well.”

Elsewhere, Japanese suicide rates have been on the increase since 1998, when an increase in bankruptcies and unemployment generated a significant surge in suicide statistics, with many victims killing themselves due to financial pressures. In the decade preceding 1997, the number of suicides in Japan hovered at around 15,000 to 25,000 reported suicides per year. In 1998, suicides crossed the 30,000 threshold and have remained high.

The latest figures also reveal that there were nearly 9,000 money-related suicides, which represents an increase of just over 12% from the 2002 figures. This equates to an additional 950 deaths and reports revealed that 25.8% of these were suicides due to money problems.