The study, which reveals Britons’ shocking misconceptions about the country’s financial situation, also found that over a third wrongly believe the National Mint can ‘just print more money’ to pay down the debt.

The poll of 2,196 UK adults by VoucherCodesPro.co.uk found many people massively underestimate the national debt figure by trillions of pounds.

The average Brit thinks the national debt level is £5.3m, whereas the actual figure is around £1.4trn.

Just a fifth of those surveyed correctly said national debt was ‘the total amount of money that a country’s government has borrowed, by various means’. Some 65% thought it was the total amount British citizens owed in their debts and the remaining respondents were unsure.

After being told exactly what national debt really was, 34% said the debt could be reduced by simply getting the Royal Mint to print more money. Nearly 30% said we should recall loans from other countries.

Meanwhile, nearly a fifth said the UK could ‘sell a country within the Commonwealth’, while 5% said the Government should raise taxes.

George Charles of VoucherCodesPro.co.uk said: “It’s quite alarming that people have very little knowledge of national debt and the current situation in the UK. Some of the solutions people offered up for reducing the national debt were bordering on humorous.

“If only getting rid of debts was as simple as having the National Mint print off some more money!”