Credit card balances start to creep up

21st April 2022 Arrears and Recoveries |

Latest figures from UK Finance have indicated that credit card balances have started to creep up as the cost of living started to bite. The figures show that after several months of falls, outstanding balances on credit cards have started to creep up again with balances up 3.8% year on year. Spending had previously been…

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Self-employed people risk financial hardship with reliance on personal savings

21st April 2022 Banking and Loans |

Over half (57%) of self-employed workers in the UK rely on personal savings when they are not working, yet a massive 81 per cent aren’t seeking financial advice according to new research from protection and pensions provider, Scottish Widows. Over two-thirds (64%) of those who are self-employed in the UK revealed they are without a…

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Households face pay squeeze deepens despite unemployment figures fall

Real average weekly pay packets fell by 1.3 per cent in February, with a far deeper squeeze coming in the months ahead, despite the jobs market continuing to tighten and last year’s furlough flattering the headline pay data, the Resolution Foundation says in response to the latest ONS labour market statistics. The UK jobs market…

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Over 1.2m Subscriptions stopped as households feel the squeeze

Over 1.2 million subscription payments have been cancelled since the summer of last year as households feel the squeeze of the cost of living crisis, research from Lloyds Bank shows. Popular TV, film and music streaming services made up almost half (47.1%) of regular payments cancelled, with households taking further stock of their discretionary spending,…

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Supporting families costs newly retired £3,700 a year

7th April 2022 Consumer Collections |

Retiring during a pandemic is unlikely to be easy but 2021’s retirees are still financially supporting their family to the tune of £3,700 a year, new research from Key Later Life Finance – the UK’s leading advice firm in this sector – shows. Despite the increasing strain on finances, more than a third of the…

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Times were already hard for many before the latest cost of living crisis

StepChange Debt Charity’s 2021 Statistics Yearbook, has shown that even before the latest rise in general inflation and the rise in the energy price cap, households in the UK experiencing problem debt were already facing a cost of living crisis. In 2021, StepChange was contacted by almost half a million (483,247) new clients seeking debt…

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14% of under 24s already have a second job to try and cover cost of living

New research by GoCompare has revealed that the UK’s young people may be the generation are most likely to need to work more and take on additional jobs, in order to cover rising bills and the cost of living. The survey of 2,149 people in the UK found that more than 1 in 5 people…

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Soaring cost of living cited by half million as key debt driver

The soaring cost of living is cited by over a half a million people as a key driver for personal debt, new analysis from Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) has revealed. Analysis by the charity of polling undertaken by YouGov found that 52 per cent of Scottish adults in debt or at risk of debt since…

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Up to 1.4m people experiencing gambling harms

29th March 2022 Consumer Collections | #gambling

As new data shows gambling participation is back to pre-pandemic levels, the charity GambleAware has warned that an estimated 1.4 million people are experiencing harms from their gambling. The figures come as GambleAware launches a campaign to raise awareness of treatment and support available through the National Gambling Treatment Service (NGTS). Working in partnership with…

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Household income inequality worries are amplified amid the cost-of-living crisis

The Office For National Statistics (ONS) has today revealed its estimates of household incomes and inequality in the UK for the financial year ending 2021. For the financial year 2021, median income of the poorest fifth of people fell by an average of 2%, while the richest fifth of people fell by 1%. Whilst disposable income inequality…

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CSA reports collections sector increasingly embracing new communications technologies

A new survey by the Credit Services Association (CSA), the UK trade body for debt collection and debt purchase, found that firms expect to either explore or adopt new communications technologies in the coming years, which will afford customers a broader range of options to engage and discuss their debt. Despite this move toward digital…

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SPRING STATEMENT: National Insurance threshold and cuts fuel duty – Industry reaction

24th March 2022 Arrears and Recoveries | #economy

The Chancellor delivered a Spring Statement which will reduce fuel duty on petrol and diesel by 5p per litre for the next year and announces a £5 billion income tax cut from 2024. The National Insurance starting thresholds will rise to £12,570 from July.  The Government says that the tax cut, worth over £6 billion,…

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Two in five Universal Credit claimants forced into debt this winter

Two in five people receiving Universal Credit were forced into debt this winter as payments failed to cover soaring cost of living according to new research by the Trussell Trust. Trussell Trust says new research has revealed the true and devastating consequences of the current cost of living crisis, with hundreds of thousands of families…

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