BARNSLEY Citizen's Advice Bureau estimates it will have dealt with more than £16m of debt by the end of March.
Figures up to the end of December show a 16 per cent increase on the same period the previous year.
The statistic is expected to have risen again in January with Christmas debts adding to existing financial issues including loans, rent arrears, utility bills, mortgage repayments and court fines.
Chief executive Pat Heath said he could see no signs of Barnsley coming out of the recession.
"We have seen a continual increase in people throughout the year and we always get a surge of people in the New Year," he said.
"There is this talk that the country is emerging out of recession but there are no signs of that happening in Barnsley. We can't see an end to it at the moment."
