Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
Water UK has announced that water bills are set to rise from April, adding to the cost of living crisis due to hit households across the country. As water companies issue customers’ water bills for next year, showing an average increase of 1.7%, or about £7, Ofwat has called on water companies to make providing…
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Research by KIS Finance has revealed that as a direct result of the rising cost of living, 57% of people are either already struggling financially, or expect to do so in the very near future. With inflation jumping to 5.4%, its highest level in almost 30 years, increasing numbers are finding it challenging to make…
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Research from Cornwall Insight has shown that conditions could be in place for volatile wholesale energy prices to continue into 2030 and beyond, unless the UK develops a long-term strategy to cope with changes in energy production and unstable economic, geopolitical, and ecological systems. Cornwall Insight’s Benchmark Power Curve, which looks at energy investment and…
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Millions of people with mental health problems say they are missing out on Equality Act protections from banks and other essential services firms according to new a report by Money and Mental Health Policy Institute. The research found that many banks and other essential services providers are likely to be failing to meet legal duties set…
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New research by HL Savings and Resilience Barometer, in partnership with Oxford Economics, has found that higher earners have more debt than any other income group and they also have more debt as a percentage of their income. Higher earners also have a bigger proportion of their debt on variable rates than people on lower incomes.…
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Household bills fell marginally over 2021, with annual costs falling by £37 during the past 12 months, according to new data from comparethemarket.com. This new research which analyses the cost of energy, home, and motor insurance, based on comparethemarket.com’s switching data, shows that household bills were cheaper last year than the two years prior. A typical…
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The Government should reject over-complicated solutions to the cost-of-living crisis and simply make one-off cash payments to millions of households, according to Dr Aveek Bhattacharya, Chief Economist of the Social Market Foundation. The Social Market Foundation says that cash payments of up to £500 would be the best answer to the cost-of-living crisis, allowing households…
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Official figures show that inflation jumped to 5.4% in December, with this the highest rate since the 7.1% recorded in March 1992. The consumer price index (CPI) measure of inflation was up from 5.1% in November, with soaring food costs and energy price increases helping drive the rate up. The Office for National Statistics (ONS)…
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More than a quarter (27%) of consumers think they could be losing money due to lack of, or insufficient, understanding of financial terminology, according to recent research from Aviva. The insurer also found that women (30%) are more likely to think financial lingo could be losing them money than men (23%). To understand the saving…
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New research by Moneyfarm and Dectech has revealed that 25% of the nation are financially dependent on a partner. A further 17% are reliant on their parents with a further 10% reliant on other relatives. Whilst 8% of UK adults are dependent on their children, most surprisingly, 22% of 18 to 30-year-olds are actually financially…
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New research from Quilter has found that if another lockdown is implemented as a result of the Omicron variant, many women consider themselves in a worse off position financially. The research, carried out by YouGov for Quilter, found that more than one in five (22%) women said they were in a worse position financially than…
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Households have suffered the sharpest fall in the amount of cash they have available to spend for almost eight years, amid a worsening cost of living crisis driven by high inflation and rising energy bills. Research by Scottish Widows’ Household Finance Index found that surging living costs hit people’s pockets and led to the steepest…
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The Bank of England data for November showed a significant net increase in borrowing on credit cards, which StepChange Debt Charity warns may be an indicator of increasing underlying financial stress among some households. Credit cards remain the most common type of unsecured debt held by new StepChange clients at the time they take advice.…
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