He explained that due to the “steady erosion of people’s financial resilience” due to the cost of living crisis and Covid-19, increasingly people coming to StepChange are in a “negative budget”, which is where their income isn’t enough to meet their essential needs.
“At the moment, roughly one in three people who come to us are in what we term a ‘negative budget’, which is obviously hugely concerning and points to the long-term damage the last five years has created for a large number of people,” he said.
Trevethick said while credit cards remain the most common debt type people come to StepChange with, “people are struggling more with energy debt, council tax debt and mortgage debt”. Additionally,…
