Survey shows households in UK still overstretched

A recent study has shown that households in the UK are still overstretched financially, with the findings showing that more than 50 percent of them have been struggling to repay their debts. The study was carried out by the Bank of England and involved polling around two thousand people.

According to the results of the study more than half of households were struggling meet repayments on debts such as credit cards, loans, and other unsecured debts. The results also showed that around 22 percent of consumers had been put off spending money because it was becoming more difficult to borrow money – this reflected an increase from the 16 percent that said the same thing in a poll carried out last year.

In addition to looking at difficulties with debt repayments and spending the survey also looking into how people thought they would be affected by government cutbacks. The results showed that a massive 90 percent of consumers thought that they would be affected by the cutbacks and spending cuts that were being imposed by the coalition government.

However, despite the fact that so many believe that the cutbacks will affect them less than 50 percent had actually taken any steps or action to try and prepare themselves for the possibility of being affected, such as saving more money, looking for a new job, or working longer hours. Reliance on credit cards and loans has been growing according to the Bank of England report, and a quarter of households are struggling to meet payments on bills.

In its report the Bank of England noted: “The burden of unsecured debt has risen this year, most likely reflecting a combination of weak earnings growth and the interest rates on unsecured debt remaining high over the past two years.”

Tags: report, addition, fact, spending, Household, debt consolidation