Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
Chancellor John Healey has set out the Government’s spending plans in his Budget, the first since Andy Burnham became Prime Minister. One of the key announcements was that standing charges, fixed daily fees customers pay regardless of usage, are to be removed from household gas bills in England, Scotland and Wales, with costs added to…
Read more
Latest official figures published by the Accountant in Bankruptcy (AiB) have shown that there were 2,348 personal insolvencies (bankruptcies and protected trust deeds) in 2026-27 Q2, an increase of 559 (31.2%) compared with 2025-26 Quarter 2 (Q2), covering July-September 2026. In the same Quarter there were 713 debtor applications for bankruptcy benefitted from the revised…
Read more
More than four in ten people struggling with debt wait over a year before seeking help, according to research from StepChange Debt Charity and PRA Group. The study of more than 1,600 debt management plan client, found that 43% worried about their finances for more than a year before seeking advice. Embarrassment was the most common…
Read more
Days before the Chancellor delivers the Autumn Budget, more than half of adults (52%) expect it to leave them worse off, according to new research from Creditspring, with just 12% expecting to be better off, so pessimists outnumber optimists by more than four to one. The research shows that many households go into the Budget with…
Read more
The share of workers on low pay failed to fall for the first time in 15 years, and in fact rose slightly last year, the Resolution Foundation has said in response to the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE). ASHE is a large ONS survey of businesses and provides valuable detail on earnings…
Read more
More than a third (36%) of households in Britain with an annual income of less than £40,000 have skipped meals or eaten less because of financial pressures in the last three months, according to the latest Vanquis Financial Wellbeing Index. Over the same period, more than a quarter (27%) have delayed medical or dental treatment…
Read more
Average active UK credit card balances surpassed £2,000 in August, marking a historic high, according to FICO. Payment rates fell after a brief recovery, contributing to increased balances. Average spending rose by 3.1% month-on-month to £840, 3.3% year-on-year, marking the highest annual growth rate in over a year. The average credit limit also crossed £6,000…
Read more
Latest monthly figures from the Insolvency Service for England & Wales showed that personal insolvencies decreased by 2% in September 2026 compared to the previous month, with 11,894 people entering insolvency compared to 11,684 in August. Personal insolvencies were 9% higher than in September 2025, when the figure was 10,952. The insolvencies consisted of 671…
Read more
Just under half (49%) of working women are now classed as financially vulnerable, compared to 35% of men, according to analysis by the financial wellbeing firm Hymans Robertson Personal Wealth. The research investigated the financial wellbeing of the UK workforce, lifting the lid on how frequently they have stressful feelings about their finances and where…
Read more
New research by the Personal Finance Research Centre, University of Bristol, in partnership with StepChange Debt Charity and funded by NatWest Group, has revealed acute housing pressures, debt and lasting pandemic impacts affecting under-35s. According to the report, almost half (44%) of StepChange clients aged 18-34 surveyed have borrowed money to cover their housing costs.…
Read more
Fewer than one in ten (9%) adults with living parents have discussed how finances should be managed if they developed a condition such as dementia. This is despite more than half (53%) saying they would feel comfortable having the conversation, according to new research from Nationwide. A lack of preparedness means that nearly a quarter…
Read more
Latest Bank of England data (Quarter 3 2026) has shown that credit card defaults increased in the three months to August, with banks and building societies expecting further rises by November, highlighting growing risks in unsecured lending. Within the overall figure, demand for credit card lending was unchanged. Mortgage defaults fell slightly and are expected…
Read more
The past five years of a near-continuous cost of living crisis have caused the real incomes of typical working-age households to fall rather than grow, leaving them £2,900 (7.9 per cent) worse off this year compared to a world of normal inflation, according to new analysis published by the Resolution Foundation. The report Counting the…
Read more