One of the biggest issues faced by financially vulnerable people in the UK today is also one of the least discussed. Much of the public conversation in recent years has, justifiably, focused on inflation, stagnant wages and falling living standards. In these circumstances, access to affordable short-term borrowing can provide a crucial lifeline. Yet the availability of consumer credit is drastically worsening. This has tragic human consequences, as more people are forced into the arms of dangerous and illegal loan sharks.
We all know that people face unexpected costs and financial challenges. Boilers malfunction; family emergencies require travel at short notice; cars break down on the side of the road. For the 11 million working-age people in Britain with less than £1,000 in savings, short-term or emergency loans might be the only option to help them make ends meet.
- Buy Now Pay Later must be regulated – before it pushes even more vulnerable people into debt
- I took out loans and maxed out credit cards to fund my gambling addiction. I ended up homeless
These challenges have only grown more severe as the cost of living crisis has unfolded. Research from Fair4All Finance found that 20.3 million people (almost half of the UK’s adult population) are living in financially vulnerable circumstances.
Unfortunately, even as the demand for affordable credit skyrockets, its availability is diminishing at an alarming rate. A study by ClearScore and EY found that the number of loans extended to customers in the UK with the lowest credit ratings has fallen by over 75% in the past five years.
The big banks just don’t think it is worth offering credit services to people with low credit scores or irregular employment histories. A number of the specialist consumer credit firms who catered for this demographic have either gone out of business or been effectively shut down by regulators – and often rightly so, given the predatory business models that many employed.
But this has left people high and dry. It is getting much more difficult for the financially vulnerable to access regulated money lenders from which they can safely borrow amounts that they can afford to repay.