Households in hock

摘要

A charm bracelet festooned with trinkets, worn and slightly dented, hangs in the window of a pawnshop in Padding-ton, in west London. It was a gift from a man to his wife, says Bernard Mooney, the shop's manager. Every year he would add a new trinket, until the two ran out of money. They pawned the bracelet and were given, as is usual, a loan for less than a third of its value. But they could not pay it back, and the bracelet is up for sale at a snip. "You hear the saddest stories", says Mr Mooney. "But you also get people saying, 'You've saved my life.'"