The number of adults who are very concerned about their ability to manage their debts has risen to over 1 in every 10 people who owe money, according to research from MoneyExpert.com.

This amounts to as many as 3.4m people who might not be able to keep on top of their borrowing.

The proportion of people claiming to be ‘very concerned’ about the money they owe has risen from 7% three months ago to 11% now.

In addition, the research shows that 1 in 4 adults with debts have increased their borrowing in the past three months, as people continue to feel the pinch of recent interest rate rises. In fact, 2.7 million people (9%) claim to have gone further into debt by over 10%.

Sean Gardner, chief executive of MoneyExpert.com, said: “Over 3 million people are very concerned about keeping on top of their debts – a figure that has risen significantly in only 3 months.

“And with the festive season just around the corner, we can only predict that the number of people worried about their ability to deal with their debts is likely to increase. Christmas is a massively expensive time of year so you can’t help but worry that many more are likely to become increasingly concerned about how they’ll cope.”