Where's Mr Micawber when we need him?

I remember being frightened when I took on a £30,000 mortgage to buy my first property. The value of money has declined somewhat in the last twenty years but nevertheless this is really scary:

Research carried out in May 2001, when the study began, found that people who came to Citizens Advice Bureaux for help had an average debt of £10,700 but a monthly income of about £800, under half the national average. In Scotland, the average debt of people needing help was £8,140, while the average income was £730 a month. During May 2001 alone, 900 people who asked for help owed an average of more than 14 times their monthly income.

I read somewhere recently that the average woman aged between 20 and 30 owes some £10,000 excluding mortgage debt.

I wonder just how sound the banking system is. Have a look here if you want to get really worried.