UK debt misery revealed: tower block where living in the red is a way of life

Raja Hussain and his partner Shaista Parveen, at home with their daughter Eliza, have been trying to climb out of debt for over a year. Photograph: Andrew Fox

"I've stopped opening the letters," says 22-year-old Raja Hussain, bouncing his month-old daughter on his knee. "I don't want to see what's inside."

Winter sunlight streams into Hussain's one-room flat on the 15th floor of the Trident tower block, providing an impressive view of Birmingham glittering below. New baby clothes cover the radiators and the smell of powdered baby milk mingles with the heat and damp.

Since baby Eliza arrived, Hussain's family of three have struggled to make ends meet. Now that the letters from his creditors are piling up, the young father says he has lost track of how much he owes. "It's