Oklahoma City, OK (PRWEB) May 31, 2012
The Oklahoma bankruptcy lawyers at the law firm of Atkins & Markoff, a law firm that dedicates part of its practice to helping consumers and businesses work towards a solution to their extreme financial difficulties, hereby alerts the public of the release of a study that revealed that older Americans are living with more debt now than they have in the past.
Specifically, the study was performed by the Employment Benefit Research Institute, which is based in Washington, D.C. The EBRI study revealed that from 1992 until 2007, the percentage of households of people in their mid-50s and older with housing and consumer debt rose from 53.8 percent to 63 percent. In addition, 81.7 percent of Americans between the ages of 55 and 64 were carrying similar types of debt.
During that same timeframe, the average amount of debt being carried by households of residents aged 55 and older more than doubled to $ 70,370.00. The study further found that the most common type of debt being carried by those subject to the study was credit card debt and health care costs. The average amount of credit card debt carried by households aged 55 and older was more than $ 10,000.00.
Finally, the study included the fact that American adults 50 years old and older owe a total of 17 percent of the nation’s $ 870 billion in student-loan debt. That fact was originally reported in a study released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. All of these statistics contribute to the unfortunate result that debtors aged 60 and older now represent the fastest-growing segment seeking help at member offices across the country according to the Association of Independent Consumer Credit Counseling Agencies.
The Oklahoma bankruptcy lawyers at Atkins & Markoff encourage Americans of all ages who may be struggling with the amount of debt they are carrying at this point in their lives to consider all of the options available for financial relief. These options could include filing for bankruptcy or pursuing some other course of action that will bring about an end to financial difficulties.
About Atkins & Markoff
The Oklahoma bankruptcy lawyers at Atkins & Markoff, whose law firm Web site URL can be found at http://www.OklahomaBankruptcyLawCenter.com, is a law firm comprised of Oklahoma bankruptcy attorneys who have been representing consumers since 1999 in bankruptcy-related legal matters that include Chapter 7, Chapter 11 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy cases as well as debt consolidation and credit counseling matters. The firm represents consumers in bankruptcy cases throughout the state of Oklahoma.