Many people are finding they do not have enough cash to cope with regular expenses such as rent and mortgage payments, emphasising the need for savings accounts.

Shelter and the Co-Operative Insurance found that the average monthly shortfall for homes across the UK is £165 a month as people spend more than they earn.

This is the case for 28 per cent of Britons, the groups found, with common shortfalls including fuel bills, living costs and rent.

Campbell Robb chief executive of Shelter said: "Recent research from Shelter showed that over two million people are now turning to their credit cards to pay their rent or mortgage, showing the desperate measures people are being forced to take."

Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union and the European Central Bank, recently found that the amount of money being placed in savings accounts is in decline all over the continent.