Britain in the Red: Why we need action to help over-indebted households

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Britain in the Red: Why we need action to help over-indebted households

In 2016 we were jointly commissioned by UNISON and the TUC to undertake an analysis of over-indebtedness in Britain. The report highlighted how traditional measures of the debt burden understated this because they fail to take account of rising living costs. We construct a new measure based not on gross incomes but on the level of interest payments relative to the available surplus of income over non debt related expenditure. We call for this measure to be used to guide future policy interventions.

Report
Event

Britain in the Red: Why we need action to help over-indebted households

In 2016 we were jointly commissioned by UNISON and the TUC to undertake an analysis of over-indebtedness in Britain. The report highlighted how traditional measures of the debt burden understated this because they fail to take account of rising living costs. We construct a new measure based not on gross incomes but on the level of interest payments relative to the available surplus of income over non debt related expenditure. We call for this measure to be used to guide future policy interventions.

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HOW CAN YOU HELP

Our work makes a real difference to lower income households. We were leaders in the campaign for caps on the costs that payday lenders and rent-to-own firms can charge, which has saved borrowers an estimated £150 million per year since 2015. And our FlexMyRent project could eliminate the need for social housing tenants to incur any interest at all.

Most recently we have been supporting the We are Debt Advisers campaign from our own revenues.   We therefore welcome donations, of any size, which we can put towards current and future campaigns.
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