Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
5.7 million low-income households are having to cut down or skip meals because they don’t have enough money for food, while the number going without items such as food, heating or basic toiletries (63%) has remained around 7 million for more than a year according to latest analysis by Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF). The research…
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Two in five people (40%) have been hit by an unexpected expense in the past 12 months costing them £1,851, up £394 in a year.according to research by Hargreaves Lansdown. The unexpected bill was most common among those aged 18-34 – half of whom had an unexpected expense (49%). Half (49%) of people were able to cover…
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Three-quarters of people feel their financial education was inadequate or non-existent, impacting their ability to navigate the cost-of-living crisis. A study commissioned by Santander found that 69% of people feel they have struggled to cope with the current cost-of-living crisis due to a lack of financial education at school. Just 26% of young adults aged…
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Latest quarterly figures from the Insolvency Service for England & Wales have indicated that personal insolvency numbers increase by 5% in May 2023 when compared with May 2022. The personal insolvency figures also increased by 10.7% in May 2023 to a total of 9,962 compared to April’s total of 9,002, and decreased by 5.1% compared…
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Citizens Advice is warning that banning Section 21 evictions will only improve renters rights if forthcoming legislation prevents backdoor ‘no fault’ evictions from taking place. The charity helped almost 2,000 people with Section 21 issues in May, the most in a single month on record and a 25% increase since May 2022. To date, 2023…
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Manchester-based Money Wellness, an organisation offering free debt and wellbeing advice, is warning that the explosion in salary advance schemes, allowing employees to access their salaries before payday, is camouflaging a spiralling debt crisis. Salary advance schemes, also known as earned wage access, salary loans or payroll advances, are financial arrangements offered as an employee…
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Domestic energy supplier E.ON Next has been ordered by Ofgem to pay £5 million in compensation for poor standards of customer service. Throughout 2022, energy regulator Ofgem conducted a series of Market Compliance Reviews (MCRs), examining energy suppliers’ performance on key areas across the sector in a bid to drive up standards. One of these…
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An estimated 5.5 million people (one in ten adults) were behind on their energy bills in April, an increase of 2.1 million compared to March 2022 according to new research from the Money Advice Trust, the charity that runs National Debtline and Business Debtline. The charity’s Under Pressure research, based on an Opinium survey…
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Less than half of children have been taught about money at home or in school, according to a new report from the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS). Financial Foundations, based on a survey of 4,740 children aged 7-17, found that just 47% had received a meaningful financial education in either or both settings. The figure…
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The North East was England’s most affordable region to privately rent last year, Paragon Bank analysis has revealed. In the North East of England, earnings averaged £30,078 in 2022. A rental affordability ratio of 23.5% is derived by dividing this by £7,054, the average annual cost to privately rent a home in the region. This…
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Energy retailers have been urged to simplify the language used in consumer communications after a survey found the majority of customers (76%) are confused by their bill. Consumer group Which?’s research found almost half (48%) of all consumers said they experience a negative emotional response when reading their bills. The research that almost half (47%)…
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New research by TotallyMoney has predicted the impact of the Bank of England’s hiking interest rates by a further 0.25% (to 4.75%) on borrowers with a variable rate mortgage head of the next MPC announcement on the 22nd of June. The research found that for the average UK property costing £270,708 with a 75% LTV,…
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Cost of living pressures have affected UK consumers more than their European counterparts, according to the latest EY UK Future Consumer Index. The twelfth edition of EY’s survey of 1,000 UK consumers found that 62% of UK consumers say they are ‘extremely concerned’ by the cost-of-living squeeze, compared with 50% in the rest of Europe.…
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