Are you a Service Junkie?

Fed up with ironing, cleaning and all those other household chores - but feel guilty about getting someone in to do them for you?

Well don't, because more and more busy workers are hiring 'househelpers' while they use their precious time off to have fun.

Many people have their evening meals delivered regularly - and traditional pizza or Chinese deliveries are not posh enough - or get someone in to cook for them because they can't face the kitchen.

The name for the new breed of worker who relies on outside help to run the home is Service Junkie.

According to market researchers at Datamonitor, who coined the phrase, typical Service Junkies are households where both partners work long hours, or where a group of adults - often young professionals - live together.

Last year, Britons spent more than £2.3billion hiring cleaners.
Over the next four years, this figure is predicted to nearly double to almost £3.9billion.

About 2.3million households employed a cleaner, such as Little Mo in EastEnders, at some point last year.

In addition, we forked out more than £690million on home laundry services - but that figure is predicted to rise to almost £1.8billion by 2006. By then, we are also expected to spend more than £1.1billion having take-away meals delivered - up from £830million last year.

A Datamonitor spokesman said last night: 'It's not that these tasks are difficult, it's about balancing the time we spend at work and what we have to do at home.

'More and more people are realising they can out-source to third parties and free up more time to enjoy themselves or just relax.'

Researchers also found there was more emphasis on career success, with a better educated and more mobile workforce competing for the best jobs.