Speaking yesterday at a Youth Parliament event in central London, Nick Clegg warned the audience of young people that total personal debt had risen by £1 trillion since Labour came to power, with debt repayments equating to £3000 per second.
He also warned them that Britain is in danger of mortgaging their future, and that unless we act now, it will be their generation which suffers from the legacy of debt.
Liberal Democrat plans to address Britain's personal debt problem also include:
Encouraging the BBC immediately to launch a campaign of public education through all its media channels, directing people to the appropriate advice and information to manage their finances
A comprehensive network of free financial advice centres, funded 50-50 between the banks and the Government, to ensure everyone has access to impartial information and advice regarding extreme debt cases; issues around benefit and tax credits; pension advice and repossessions
A 4p cut in the basic rate of income tax, paid for by closing loopholes for the wealthy, in order to put money back in the pockets of struggling lower and middle income families
Nick Clegg said: "One of the reasons why the economy's in such a state at the moment is because of all this debt. It is our young who will inherit this legacy of debt.
"We've been addicted to debt, and now we're having to go cold turkey.
"We must not hand on this addiction to you. Personal finance is enormously complicated - we can't just imagine people will muddle through and magically understand APRs and SVRs and IVAs.
"As anyone hoping to go to University knows, our education system is very good at saddling students with debt - but rotten at educating them out of debt."
It's a shame that this debt education wasn't available to the current crop of bankers.
