Low-income households in Essex face poverty ‘tipping point’
The charity Christians Against Poverty (CAP) delivers services across the UK to support those struggling with debt and poverty.
New research has found a growing number of households on low incomes being pulled into debt, simply to pay for essential living costs.
Christians Against Poverty’s (CAP) newest YouGov polling reveals that over 15 million people across the UK are struggling, burdened by debt repayments.
The research found that 82% of people with incomes below the minimum level were in debt due to essential household bills — representing around one million people across the UK.
The charity warns that getting behind on essential bills traps people further, as there is almost double the likelihood of them remaining to struggle for successive years.
It’s also been revealed that more people are using credit cards for essential costs.
Over 4.5 million people have been mainly using credit in the last 6 months to pay for monthly bills.
Around 42% of UK adults have limited electricity or gas use in their house once a month, or more often, to cope with the rising cost of living.
Almost 9m people have skipped meals at least as often as once a month because of the cost-of-living crisis, with 9% of UK adults (4.9m people) doing so on at least a weekly basis.
Basildon and Brentwood Debt Centre Manager, Rachael Philips, says the research confirms what they are seeing on the ground — that the cost-of-living crisis is far from over.
She said: “Council tax has gone up, the gas, the electric. Everything has gone up and the living wage hasn't kept up with that, so individuals that were managing all right on what they were earning are now finding they can't. They might be using credit cards to pay for bills, which is then a downward spiral because you then get all the interest on the credit cards.
“Unfortunately, people find ways of escaping from that. So, they might look to alcohol, drugs and gambling - it's the knock-on effect that makes life that much harder.”
She continued: “When you're worrying about paying your debts, you don't sleep. You're not doing so well at work, or you even get to the point where you can't face going out. It really effects people's mental health enormously. We've had clients that have thought about ending it all as being the only way out of the debt.
“There is a lot of help out there. It's a case of not burying your head in the sand, which is what everybody does when they can't cope.”
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