Many people fail to seek debt management advice because they are embarrassed to do so, it has been claimed.

This is a concerning state of affairs, stated Jolanta Lasota, chief executive of Turn2us.org.uk, who suggested they may be worried about the perceptions people may form of them.

"If they have not been in financial difficulty before and they have worked all their lives, they find it hard to come to terms with the idea that they are in that situation," she revealed.

Ms Lasota believes there is "quite a negative portrayal" of people who are in situations such as this, despite the fact they are in obvious need of debt management assistance.

Almost one in five people are really worried about their financial situation and 38 per cent could not cope for more than one month without pay, a study by the website recently found.

By the end of the year, almost a third of people fear they are going to be financially worse off than they are already, while 40 per cent wouldn’t be able to cover bills if they didn’t receive their next pay cheque, it also found.