Young people still want a human to help them with debt advice. AI chatbots won’t cut it

Young adulthood should be a time of possibility: finding your feet, building a career, making a home. But when your income won’t cover the essentials, those ambitions can quickly give way to a more immediate concern: getting through the month.

For some young people, that means borrowing simply to keep a roof over their heads. In our new research, 44% of StepChange clients aged 18 to 34 who took part in the survey said they had borrowed to meet rent or mortgage payments in the last three years.

That is a worrying starting point for adult life. It also tells us why understanding young people’s debt means looking beyond what they borrow to the circumstances that make borrowing feel necessary.

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The research, carried out by the Personal Finance Research Centre at the University of Bristol, in partnership with StepChange Debt Charity and funded by NatWest Group, explores how young adults get into financial difficulty and what could help prevent it.

It brings together analysis of around 71,000 StepChange clients aged 18 to 34 who received advice in 2025, a client survey with around 100 responses to most questions, in-depth interviews with around 20 of those clients, and nationally representative YouGov polling.

What emerges is a picture of financial pressure building through different stages of young adulthood. Unemployment and insecure work can leave people reaching for credit to make ends meet. Physical and mental health problems can affect earnings while bringing additional costs. High housing costs leave little room to absorb a setback.

Yet the relationship between credit and financial difficulty is not straightforward. Three in five (59%) of the young clients surveyed said their financial difficulties had not yet started when they first used credit.

Three in four (75%) had first used credit before the age of 21, typically through a credit card or overdraft, including student overdrafts. These products can become part of everyday life before someone encounters the circumstances that make repayments difficult. For others, borrowing begins as a response to an existing shortfall.

Over half (53%) felt, with hindsight, that they had not fully understood the risks and terms of the credit they used. That should prompt serious questions about how clearly products are explained and how well customers are supported.

The research also challenges the idea that there is a typical young person who gets into debt. Some participants had grown up in households where money was tight or debt was familiar; others had not. Their routes through education and work varied too. There was no single pathway into difficulty.

For lenders, advice organisations and others offering support, understanding those different experiences matters. So does listening to what young people themselves find useful.

Money guidance websites, online forums, apps and digital tools were the most highly rated sources of useful information among the young clients surveyed. But being comfortable online does not mean trusting every new technology with your finances.

Over a quarter (26%) said they would not want to use AI for any of the financial tasks asked about, such as writing to creditors or getting budgeting advice. In the wider polling, 43% of 18- to 34-year-olds said they would not use AI for any financial tasks, compared with 49% of adults overall.

Trust remains essential. Evidence that a provider was regulated, advice relevant to someone’s circumstances and clear, understandable language all mattered. As one survey respondent put it, useful support meant advice that was not simply “stop buying coffee every day”.

There is a clear responsibility here for organisations like StepChange to make trusted help easy to find and approachable. Lenders must also recognise signs of difficulty early, respond with care and help people access support before debts escalate.

But better information alone cannot close a gap between income and essential costs. Preventing debt also means addressing the pressures around housing, employment and health that leave young people financially exposed.

Young adults deserve the chance to build a future with some financial security. Borrowing to get through this month should not become the reason that future slips further out of reach.

Vikki Brownridge is the chief executive of StepChange Debt Charity.

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. 

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