A Quarter Of Adults Struggle With Christmas Debt
That's according to new research out today.
Over a quarter of adults in Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire are expected to struggle to make ends meet this month as the expense of Christmas sets in.
Around 20% of gifts were either paid for using a credit card or payday loan this festive season - according to new research.
It means there could be a big surge in the number of people in our region seeking help for debt over the next few months.
Charity - Hull and East Riding Citizens Advice Bureau - has told us that they're expecting a 30% rise in the number of people coming to them for debt advice over the next month.
Ray Davies is from the charity and says:
"Typically at this time of year, between now and February, we see about a 35% increase and it's down to several reasons; one is people have spent their bill money, often it's when the credit card bills from the festive period start to come in and also there are more people who seperate in January and this has a knock on effect and causes all sorts of problems.
"Every year there is always a surge of credit before Christmas and people are often still paying back last Christmas's presents when they come to the next Christmas which compounds the problem even more. It's a perpetual problem and for people who have got children I can understand those problems but often it leads to credit card extensions, overdrafts and payday lenders.
"This is a well proven track record across mid-Januray into February and so these people will be turning up and we will be supporting them. Whatever their debt issue is, people need to come and see us, there's always something we can do for them and especially if they have got multi-debt problems.
"People must seek advice because often they pay things that are not necessarilt that important first before they pay things such as their council tax and rent so we need to make sure they are paying the right people. We need to see what money they've got left and whether they can pay it out slowly in a manner they can afford and if not we need to look at some insolvency."
Money Advice Service research shows that one in three (30%) people in the UK said that they felt pressure to spend more than they could afford over the past Christmas period. Men and women are equally as likely to overspend but men expect to overspend by more and tend to put more of their Christmas spend on credit.
The average household spends £429 over the festive period — this covers food and drink, presents, socialising and travel. Close to one in three (32%) said they experienced financial difficulty last January as a result of spending during the Christmas period, and the top three emotional responses to this were feeling anxious, worried and, in some cases, depressedv. Close to half (48%) of those experiencing financial difficulty say that budgeting would have helped them to prevent overspending and most (72%)vi are certain that they don’t want to start the new year in a similar situation.
It is estimated that a fifth of Christmas purchases were made on credit card and around one in 10 Brits used personal or payday loans, overdrafts or borrowed money from friends to cover the cost of Christmas.
This led to one in 10 saying that their festive spending put them into debt or pushed them further into debt.
More than two fifths entered the festive period with outstanding debt, while one in 20 were still paying off debts from Christmas in 2014.