Not only in the United States is the cost of education increasing, but all over the world it is going on as well. In the United Kingdom, the amount of money that students have to borrow to go to college is increasing every year. It has increased so much that the average student debt was 3,100 pounds in 1994 and it skyrocketed to 14,700 pounds in 2004.

A study that was conducted in 2007 by Push.co.uk said that a student that finished college in 2008 would have an average debt of 21,500 pounds. Then female graduates are having a harder time paying off their debts there as well; it takes an average of 11 years to pay off for males but 16 years for females.

People everywhere are questioning whether or not it is worth the cost to go to college anymore. In the study in the United Kingdom, as many as 82% of the people who were questioned for the 2007/2008 year think that an education is worth the cost, however the figure was once 86%; showing that people are losing faith in higher education at a very slow rate.

Another issue that many students are facing as they are going into college is the issue that many families aren’t able to afford the higher education. I can speak from experience with this; my parents never saved any money for me to go to college. I had to pay for the whole thing. I worked and took out loans to help pay for school. Sometimes when students are faced with these decisions, they choose one or the other.

The debt that a student faces gets even worse when it comes time to pay back the loans that they took out throughout their time in college and they can’t find a job. This is a particularly current issue because of the high unemployment rate. In the United States the unemployment rate for those between the ages of 18 and 24 is higher than any other age group and it continues to grow with the overall unemployment rate. When someone is not able to find any work, especially work that will pay off the mountain of debt that a student accumulates, then it does become quite a daunting task to be able to pay the student loan bill every month.

If anyone were to ask me if I would or would not go through college all over again, I think I would. I enjoyed some of the time I spent there, and someday I know that going will eventually pay off. Right now, like many graduates, I am just a bit discouraged by the level of unemployment and my lack of job prospects at all. Perhaps something along the lines of graduate school is in my future somewhere. I’m not sure about that right now, especially with the mountain of debt I actually graduated with.

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Doctors in the United Kingdom are calling for a ban on all alcohol advertising according to the BBC. This includes sport and music sponsorships. The reason for the ban is to put the brakes on the rising rates of consumption in the country.

What will advertisers do with all that extra money? After all, in the UK, the alcohol industry spends over 800 million pounds per year on promoting their wares.

The problem in the UK, as well as across the world, is the rising cost of medical expenses related to treating those with alcohol related disease. According to the BBC, the cost to the NHS for treating alcohol related illnesses is estimated to be around 3 billion pounds in the UK alone. In the country, alcohol related illnesses is the third most dangerous disease, only smoking and high blood pressure are greater.

Of course, they are having the same problem that we have been having for years. There is a focus on marketing to younger people and that has to be stopped.

They are also trying to target the price of alcohol. If it is more expensive, there is a lesser chance that everyone would be able to afford it. Much like cigarettes are being taxed in the United States now, if alcohol is being taxed higher in the UK perhaps less people would be willing to drink so freely.

I honestly believe that there are some members of the population that will partake whenever they want if they want. The problem with trying to get younger people to stop is that it’s just so much of the culture, that you have to change the culture to get them to stop, or slow down. Look at college fraternity parties; when you see them portrayed on TV they have kegs of beer and there seems to be an unlimited supply of alcohol. In real life, it’s not much different; however, I’ve never seen anyone throw a mattress out a window.

It has to be taken a bit further than just limiting advertising in my opinion.

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A report from Age Concern in April said that 24% of seniors in the United Kingdom, around 2.5 million citizens, think that the quality of their lives has diminished during the last year. Twelve months prior to the April 2009 study, the number of citizens who believed this was around 2 million.

The truth is that one out of every five seniors live below the poverty line. Those who are below the poverty line have to do what they can to make ends meet; which includes skipping meals or missing out on essential items. Many are going without electricity and cutting back on gas consumption.

Many seniors who lived through World War II and throughout the post war period have acquired skills that they are now employing to meet their most basic needs. Cooking from scratch instead of buying meals that are already made or going out to eat, from what they cook, eating more leftovers, sewing and fixing their own clothing and growing their own vegetables are all some of the things that seniors are finding themselves doing to save money here and there.

Sixty eight percent of those seniors surveyed feel as though they aren’t held in high reguard by politicians and most have little confidence that the government will help the senior population throughout this recession.

Worse yet, is that many of those seniors that are finding they have to go back to work to just afford those basic necessities are coming up against age discrimination. Men who are older than 50 only have a 20% chance of getting the same job two years after leaving. Then once they lose their job, for every year that goes by, their chances of finding a similar job drops by a further quarter.

In the United States, there is a similar situation. Many seniors are finding themselves going back to work, if they can find work. Some who once held jobs in manufacturing plants simply can’t do work like that anymore due to health issues. If they can do the work, then it is hard to find that kind of work. Even those who had professional desk jobs are having a difficult time finding work. Rules and regulations change over time and if someone is out of that element for any extended period of time, then new rules typically won’t be learned as opposed to someone who is in the business who will know those regulations.

Age Concern’s “One Voice” report ended with seven priorities for action in 2009 for seniors. Those priorities included banning the required retirement age (in the UK), helping with age discrimination by educating seniors in skills, and spending 1 to 2 billion pounds on social care.

Yesterday, United Kingdom airline British Airways, who has seen the largest one-year loss since being privatized in 1987, asked employees to save the company money by working for free. Naturally, a struggling company would try to save money wherever possible, but that might be a little extreme. It is a bit difficult to tell employees that you are expecting them to work for free.

Willie Walsh, chief of British Airways, said he will not draw a salary for the month of July, demonstrating that no employee is exempt to the expectation and that it really is that important to the company. He urged other employees to work for blocks of time entirely unpaid. In a company publication, Walsh commented, “I am looking for every single part of the company to take part in some way in this cash-effective way of helping the company’s survival plan. It really counts.”

BA said it was a request that meant employees would basically volunteer to take a cut in base pay, allowing the lost income to be spread out over the course of several months. The company said last month there was a chance it would ask employees to consider working unpaid hours or shifts.

The UNITE union, which represents airline employees, including thousands of British Airways ground and cabin crew, did not respond well to this idea. UNITE said that while British Airways chief Walsh might be able to afford working a month for free, the employees could not. After all, most employees nearly live paycheck to paycheck.

British Airways said last month that it had lost 375 million pounds ($595 million) in their fiscal year which ended March 31. Compare this with a profit of 712 million pounds in the previous fiscal year and you understand their concern. They are trying to curb their worst totals in more than twenty years of public business. The previous low point was a loss of 200 million pounds in the 2001-2002 year.

The requirements for filing for a DRO are from Think Money:

• The person filing can’t pay their debts.
• He/She must owe less than 15,000 pounds.
• He/She must have 50 pounds or less disposable income a month.
• He/She doesn’t own assets worth more than a total of 300 pounds excluding an automobile, under some special circumstances. Homeowners are not eligible.
• He/She isn’t currently involved in another formal insolvency procedure.
• He/She hasn’t been the subject of a DRO in the past 6 years.

In the year that the DRO is active, the person who filed for the order will be protected from enforcement action by the creditors listed in the application, be free from the debts at the end of the DRO, must cooperate with the Official Receiver, and will be expected to make arrangements and repay all creditors once their financial circumstances improve.

There are also certain circumstances, such as fraud when applying for the DRO that can result in prosecution, so if you know someone who is thinking about filing for a DRO, they must not put any fraudulent information on the application or fail to cooperate with the Original Register.

Even with the negatives to this, if someone is qualified to apply for a debt relief order and their income situation isn’t going to be getting better, that they can see, in the short term then it may be the best option for them.

Those who are unable to find work may be turning to school as well. Over the course of one year the University of Dundee had an increase in student applications of 16.5 percent. The increase in student applications means there will most likely be an increase in student loan applications.

College is supposed to be one of the most integral parts of life. It is supposed to be when a child leaves their parents’ homes and discovers the world on their own for the very first time. It is not supposed to be a time when they are worried about what kind of job, if any job at all, they will be getting in four years when they graduate.

When these students graduate college in 4-5 years what will the job market hold for them? It is tough to say, but what is certain is that these students will face a mountain of student loan debt.

As unemployment numbers suggest, current and upcoming graduates are having a difficult time finding work. Accounting firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu has recently had an increase in applicants in its Edinburgh office of 59% for any open positions.

These graduates are not only having a hard time finding work, but they are also going to start facing their student loans soon. Student loan billing is typically deferred until six months after graduation. Once those six months are up, students will begin to be billed for the loans they incurred while in school and without income, that can be difficult.

In the UK, the average unsecured household debt is around £9,633, secured debt increases the number to £21,750, and people are beginning to default on some of this debt. Many families are defaulting because the debt load is simply too much to bear. Judgments against those in England and Wales have risen to 223,519 in the 3rd quarter of last year. The number equals staggering 2,430 people receiving judgments daily.

Debt Free Direct is a UK based company that can help resolve some of these debt issues that families are facing. Instead of going it alone, Debt Free Direct is giving anyone in the UK free debt advice at no charge and without obligation at 0800 083 1433 or you can read more about them at: http://www.debtfreedirect.co.uk/news/threatsposedbyrisingunemployment-8277-03022009/

The retail chain has been in business for 99 years. Yesterday 200 of its stores closed and the remaining 600 are expected to close in the coming weeks.

In 1997, all the Woolworths stores in the United States closed its doors and the company is now only located in the United Kingdom.