Scots have higher debt levels than the rest of the UK

Scots are more in debt than people in the rest of the UK with average loans at £4566 – nearly 50% higher than the UK average of £3104, The Sunday National can reveal.

One in 10 Scots is having to borrow money to pay rent or their mortgage while the same number (11%) are taking out loans to consolidate other debts.

The research also shows that just under one fifth of Scots (17%) had been forced to take out a payday loan to avoid a financial disaster when the banks refused to help them.

The figures have been released in the UK’s first National Borrowing Index which has been drawn up by FairMoney, the fair loan comparison site. It shows that Glaswegians, in particular, are in a debt trap and struggling to make repayments.

FairMoney founder Dr Roger Gewolb is now calling for people to be given access to fairer finance.

He said that over the last few years there had been a “significant” rise in the amount that people are borrowing and this was likely to get worse because of the pressures on the economic climate as a result of Brexit.

“We are really addicted to debt and it is getting worse,” he said. “There are 14 million people – that’s 25% of the UK population – on the poverty line.

“Millions of people don’t have food to eat and that is in a country like the UK.”

Read the full article here: https://www.thenational.scot/news/17215363.scots-have-higher-debt-levels...