Pawnbroking - still a fact of life in the UK, apparently

The practice of 'pawning' one's personal belongings for cash and then shortly thereafter buying them back at a higher cost, is apparently a growth industry in the UK - the fastest growing sector of the finance industry according to this.

This kind of hand-to-mouth existence has not gone away, however prosperous the UK might seem on the surface, even although we have been told for ages about the massive levels of personal indebtedness. I shall watch tonight's programme with interest - it's a world I know nothing about (well, almost - some years ago I became involved peripherally in arrangements to buy back for a family trust considerable quantities of antique and valuable jewellery which had been placed in 'hock' by a lady [in both senses of the word] who had a drink and gambling problem - but that is not the kind of problem I think this programme is going to be dealing with).