Latest data from the Bank of England show that spending on credit cards rose by £700 million in August as households borrowed heavily to cope with the cost of living crisis. The increase pushed the annual growth rate in spending on credit cards to 12.9%, its joint highest level since 2005. Maintaining a high level…
Read moreParents are having to find another £1,300 to meet rising childcare costs this year. This comes ahead of new energy tariffs to be introduced in October, as parents already feel that childcare has become unaffordable in the context of rising household bills according to research by Credit Karma. The research found that a quarter (24%)…
Read moreOver half (56%) of UK households are not confident that measures outlined in the Government’s ‘mini-budget’ will help them cope better with rising living costs, according to Comparethemarket’s latest Household Financial Confidence Tracker. The findings come at a time when two in five (42%) households say they already struggled to pay bills in the last…
Read moreAlmost one in two UK adults (47%) are considering taking on an additional job or getting an alternative source of income on top of their main form of employment amid the rising cost of living, according to new research by Comparethemarket. The trend is most popular among young adults aged between 25 to 34, with…
Read moreChancellor Kwasi Kwarteng announced a series of tax cuts and financial support in the mini budget on Friday (23rd September). The Chancellor announced changes to income tax and stamp duty, alongside plans to cut taxes for businesses in designated sites for ten years to support investment, jobs and growth, and cancelled the planned increase in…
Read moreRecord high inflation combined with low wages is hitting Britain’s 4.8m low paid workers harder than anything they have faced before, including the Covid-19 pandemic according to new research by the Living Wage Foundation. Polling of over 2,000 workers earning less than the real Living Wage, by the Living Wage Foundation and Survation, found 78%…
Read morePrices in shops rose by 5.1% in August according to latest analysis by the British Retail Consortium. The analysis showed that shop Price annual inflation accelerated to 5.1% in August, up from 4.4% in July. This is above the 3-month average rate of 4.1%. This marks a new record for shop price inflation since this…
Read moreConsumer confidence has fallen to a record low, according to research from data provider GfK. The consumer confidence index for August decreased by three points to minus 44, the lowest level since records began. All five measures – which include confidence in personal finances, general economic outlook, and savings – were down in comparison to…
Read moreMillions of students face a rise in living costs far in excess of the slight increase in support from maintenance loans when the new academic year begins according to new research by interactive Investor. This follows a 9% annual increase in the prices of popular student basics over the year to June 2022. For students…
Read moreThe Government would need to find £12 billion simply to achieve what it was aiming to do with the £24 billion package announced in May according to new analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), funded by the Nuffield Foundation as part of the forthcoming IFS Green Budget. The analysis says that the figures…
Read moreNew Aegon research tracking adults’ relationship with their finances since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic has found that financial worries are already significantly worse since the beginning of the cost-of-living crisis than experienced during the pandemic. The latest research* shows nearly two thirds of adults (63%) said they are worried about their finances during…
Read moreAs the cost of living crisis continues to squeeze the personal finances of many, research from Canada Life reveals over half (55%) of adults, equating to 28.9 million people, have implemented, or are looking at ways to boost their income. The top ways adults plan to increase their current income include selling unwanted belongings (36%), looking…
Read moreDebt charity says that June saw the rising cost of living being the most commonly cited reason for debt, with nearly one in five (18%) alluding to it as an underlying cause of their financial problems. The pressure arising from the cost of living is being widely felt but is most acute among those on…
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