Climbing down a mountain of debt (VIDEO)

YOUNG people who have struggled with debt problems have created two short films to help others in similar situations.

A group of 10 16 to 24-year-olds, who volunteer at the Stoke-on-Trent CAB in Cheapside, Hanley, spent one month working on the project, after being challenged to come up with the best idea of reaching out to young people in debt.

The group worked with Bafta award winning youth agency, Bold Creative, to develop the project and produced two very different films looking at the true stories of two of the individuals, Saqub Ismail, known as Scooby, and Adila Ayub.

Saqub's story uses humour to convey a serious story of how he fell into debt. Adila's story is a documentary animation which brings to life the money problems the self-confessed shop-a-holic faced.

The films are available to watch on video-sharing website YouTube from today.

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Watch the CAB videos

The 22-year-old, who lives in Cobridge, said: "Because of my debt, I got even more unhappy. Until recently I hadn't even told my parents about my situation. I felt trapped and alone and didn't know where to turn to get help. I didn't want anyone to find out but I really wanted to sort my life out. I needed somewhere confidential to turn to and heard about Citizen's Advice.

"I'd say to anyone in the same situation as me that you're not alone. It was such a relief to talk to the adviser at the CAB. They are there for everyone regardless of age."

Saqub's problems started when he withdrew £10 from his current account, but only had £9 of credit. Going £1 overdrawn resulted in him racking up ongoing monthly overdraft charges which he wasn't able to pay back as he was struggling to find a job. The charges quickly spiralled to £600. In the film, Saqub talks about the importance of not ignoring your debts and seeking help.

The 22-year-old said: "I was getting loads of letters telling me to pay the money, but I just ignored them and put them in my bottom drawer. I knew I needed to get help and thought "I've got nothing to lose" so I went down to my local CAB. Within four months they'd helped me clear my debts, it really was like a weight lifted off my shoulders."

The films were made as part of the Advice Changing Young Lives project, a three-year initiative funded by HBOS foundation.

More than 50,000 under-25s visited a CAB in England or Wales in 2008/09 to get help on debt and a recent report showed a quarter of 16 to 24-year-olds have suffered mental health issues because of their finances.

Simon Harris, chief executive of Stoke-on-Trent CAB, said: "We're delighted that young people in Stoke will be able to find out about the help we can provide with their debts through a medium they feel comfortable using.

"The experiences described by Adila and Scooby are far from unusual, but many of their peers don't see CAB as a place to go for help.

"At Stoke CAB we have always been committed to reaching as many people as possible from all groups in the City and this development can only help us and every CAB in the country provide a better service to young people."

The films will be available through social networking sites as well as the Citizens Advice website. They are also available on USB sticks from Stoke CAB which also contain a number of fact-sheets about debt.