Every desk in the big open-plan office is filled and across the hallway space is being prepared for new recruits. Business is booming at National Debtline's central Birmingham offices.
Chief executive Paul Mullins says he hopes to have doubled the number of advisers to 180 by 2009, at which point he may have to look for new premises. The organisation has come a long way since its beginnings in the late Eighties, when two volunteer debt advisers gave advice mainly about mortgage and rent arrears.
The growth in demand for National Debtline's service may be a result of greater awareness of the organisation, but Mullins is in no doubt that easily available credit is the main reason. 'We don't advertise the service, so we know people are coming to us either through word of mouth or their own research, either online or in the phone book,' he says.
