The report highlights that there has been a ten-fold increase in the portion of clients receiving casework help with multiple debts which included a payday loan debt in the last four years.

In the first quarter of 2009/10 only one per cent of CAB debt casework clients had at least one payday loan and in the same quarter last year this had risen to four per cent.

In the same quarter this year, 10% had at least one payday loan.

Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said: “Quick cash payouts can have damaging long-term consequences.

“Citizens Advice Bureaux up and down the country are seeing people who are already in long-term financial difficulty and are using payday loans as a desperate way to try to stay afloat.

“With the added costs of Christmas around the corner we’re worried that even more people may see payday loans as a way to get by, leading them into a spiral of debt.”

Citizens Advice is requesting that people come forward and name and shame payday loan companies who aren’t acting fairly.

Advice is also given by the bureaux, including which debts to prioritise, a client’s right to stop payday lenders taking money straight out of their bank account and negotiating a manageable repayment plan with the lender on a client’s behalf.