The findings by credit agency Experian suggested the middle classes saw personal insolvencies rise by almost 38 per cent in 2009 while the working classes saw numbers rise by just 13 per cent

James Jones, a manager at Experian, said: “Plummeting returns on savings and dwindling investments have combined with significant increases in essential living costs, such as petrol, food and domestic energy, to really hurt the pockets of the middle classes. Many will also have been stung by the property market slump, through heavily mortgaged second homes or buy-to-let investments.”
And Alan Tomlinson an insolvency practitioner at Tomlinsons, said "People on £40,000 salaries were spending like people earning six figures and when house prices started to fall and the employment market weaken it all ended in quite dramatic style. If your finances are very geared, as they so often were, it only takes a small change in circumstances for the walls to come crashing in."

I was £22k down last year due to reduced work and unemployment.

I work offshore.
I spent eleven months at home before I was laid off. ( Jan-Nov) I was on about half my normal income during that time.
Just spent 5 months on the dole before I got a new job last month.

I was £22k down last year due to reduced work and unemployment.
Now I have a job it's another £3k a year less and comes with lots more pointless paperwork.

Bloody bankers.

I have a friend in the construction industry and his pay is no more than it was ten years ago and down considerably on that before the crisis.

While the bankers are a major cause of the problems it was the whole borrowing well beyond peoples means that got everyone into that position. That is partly the fault of the regulators who allowed banking standards to slip.

Middle class finances hardest hit by recession

Drip drip drip drip...

It's the sound of my heart bleeding.

What counts as "middle classes" these days? I keep being told the "average" wage is in the mid 20s(K), but TBH I'm finding it hard to find jobs (admittedly for graduates) that pay more than £16-18k.