The debt crisis in Bradford appears to have reached an alarmingly high level, judging by the experience of the local branch of national charity Christians Against Poverty.

Its decision not to take on any more clients for the present because it is overwhelmed with the people currently on its books means that many of those whose personal or family finances have hit a crisis over the Christmas period will have to muddle on as best they can or hope that they can find advice elsewhere.

The Citizens' Advice Bureau's estimate that it dealt with cases in Bradford relating to £2,145,000 in the year to last April gives some idea of the scale of the problem. Its debt manager suggests that some people are simply not earning enough money to live on and must make stark choices between eating or heating.

That might well be the case, but in many instances the crisis will have been made considerably worse by the commercial pressure which is on people to spend money and the ready availability of credit. It will often have been aggravated, too, by the willingness of money lenders to advance funds, usually at exorbitant interest rates which increase the spiral of debt instead of solving the problem.

As well as helping people to escape the debt trap, extra effort needs to be put into helping them to avoid living beyond their means in the first place. This is particularly important at Christmas when the commercial pressures are strongest and the money lenders start to rub their hands in gleeful anticipation of the profits to be made from other people's misery.