This is Talk Money Week, which aims to get more people talking about money in order to improve their financial management. But we also need to talk about debt, the darker face of our materialist society.

The facts are well known. As we are borrowing hand over fist, our debt levels keep rising. Today, personal and household borrowing are at levels unseen since the financial crisis 10 years ago. There is around £240 billion of unsecured debt in the form of credit cards, personal loans and overdrafts – a growth of 9 per cent since 2014. All the while, wages are falling by 0.4 per cent a year, taking inflation into account.