Broke Scots taking out loans… just to buy food
HUNDREDS of thousands of Scots have turned to credit cards or loans to cover essential bills.
New research from Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) found the cost of living crisis is forcing people to pay for food, energy, house payments and council tax with credit cards or loans because their income does not cover their bills.
CAS financial health spokesman Sarah-Jayne Dunn said the sheer scale of the numbers forced to turn to credit is ‘worrying’.
She added: ‘The cost of living crisis has seen the cost of essentials soar for people and what we are seeing across the Citizens Advice network, and now backed up by this research, is a worrying amount of people turning to commercial credit to cover these bills.
‘For many people, sticking the
‘Our network gets real results’
weekly shop on the credit card may be something that they don’t think anything of because they pay it back at the end of the month, but for many people covering bills like energy, rent or council tax through debt is something they have been forced into because their income doesn’t cover those bills.’
The briefing, based on a poll of 1,000 Scots by YouGov, found that an estimated 6 per cent have used commercial credit to pay energy bills this year – 276,186 people.
It also found 16 per cent of people have used commercial credit to pay for food this year, amounting to 736,498 Scots. And 3 per cent have used credit to cover house payments a total of 138,093 people. The same number of people have used credit to cover council tax payments.
The charity is running the Stressed about Debt campaign, which encourages people who are worried about their bills to seek advice from it.
The service helps improve people’s financial situation and for some this includes debt write-off.
Since last spring its bureaus have helped write off more than £11million of debt, with the average amount written off being more than £12,600 per client.
Ms Dunn added: ‘We want people who are stressed about their debts to seek support from the Citizens Advice network. You can check our online advice pages or use our interactive self-help tools.
‘Our network gets real results for people. Last year people who saw a gain having sought advice were more than £3,700 better off. Crucially, our advice is free.’
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We are taking action where we can to protect people in Scotland – including by allocating £147million for local authorities to deliver a council tax freeze and through our council tax reduction scheme which supports over 450,000 households, ensuring nobody should have to meet a council tax liability they cannot be expected to afford.
‘We are also continuing to call on the UK Government to introduce a social energy tariff to help some of the most vulnerable people in society with energy bills.
‘The Scottish Government is investing more than £12.3million in advice services this year – including more than £4.45million to Citizens Advice Scotland and its network of bureaux to provide free advice to anyone worried about bills or money.’