Almost eight million people are finding it difficult to keep up with their bills, according to research from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
The regulator’s snapshot of the latest edition of its landmark Financial Lives survey, which was carried out between February and June 2022 found 7.8 million people were finding it a heavy burden to keep up with their bills, up by 2.5 million on 2020.
A quarter of UK adults were in financial difficulty or could quickly find themselves in difficulty if they suffered a financial shock, and 4.2 million people had already missed bills or loan payments in at least three of the six months before the survey took place. This was up from 3.8 million in 2020.
The research also showed 31.9 million people across the UK were finding it a heavy burden or somewhat of a burden to keep up with their bills, an increase of around six million people since 2020.
Around 12.9 million UK adults had low financial resilience – 24% of all UK adults – and up more than two million on 2020 when the figure was 10.7m. These were people in financial difficulty, or who could quickly find themselves in difficulty if they suffered a financial shock.
Adults living in the most deprived areas of the UK were nearly seven times more likely to be in financial difficulty than those living in the least deprived areas; 27% of black people said they found it a heavy burden to keep up with bills, compared with 15% of all UK adults; 12% of people in the North East and 10% in the North West are in financial difficulty, compared with 6% in the South East and South West.
Sheldon Mills, executive director, consumer and competition at the FCA, (pictured) said: “Our research shows that people up and down the country are struggling to keep up with their bills.
“If you are facing financial difficulty, you don’t need to struggle alone. There is free debt advice available, and we have told firms that they must work with their customers to solve any problems with payment.”