UKA summary report from the Money Charity highlights the state of UK personal finances.
Personal debt in the UK
• People in the UK owed £1,714.4 billion at the end of April 2021.
• The average total debt per household, including mortgages, was £61,509 and per adult was £32,355, around 108.7% of average earnings.
• Net mortgage lending rose by £3.29 billion in the month, while net consumer credit lending fell by £2.13 billion.
• Citizens Advice Bureaux across England and Wales answered 334,571 enquiries in May 2021, 23.8% up from May 2020.
Spending and Loans
• On average, 48.9 cash machine transactions (including balance enquiries and rejected transactions) were made every second in May 2021, an increase of 18.7% on May 2020.
• The number of ATMs (in-branch and remote) fell from 60,662 at the end of 2019 to 54,574 at the end of 2020 (a fall of 10.0%.)
• In Q4 2020, households in the UK spent £117.1 million a day on water, electricity, and gas, or £4.20 per household per day.
• UK Finance figures show that 56.3% of credit card balances were bearing interest in February 2021.
Mortgages, Rent, and Housing
• Outstanding mortgage lending stood at £1,519.8 billion at the end of April 2021.
• The average mortgage interest rate was 2.07% at the end of April 2021. Based on this, households with mortgages would pay an average of £2,857 in mortgage interest over the year.
• HM Land Registry reports that the average house price for first-time buyers in Great Britain was £210,856 in April 2021, an annual increase of 9.0% and a monthly fall of 1.7%.
• According to the Office for National Statistics, private rental prices in the UK rose by 1.2% in the 12 months to May 2021.
Financial Inclusion
• According to the FCA, in the UK in 2020 there were 1.2 million adults who did not have a bank account. This was 2.3% of the UK adult population.
• According to the 2019 Access to Cash Review, 2.2 million people use only cash in their daily transactions.
• According to ONS, 1.11 million households did not have access to the Internet in Jan-Feb 2020. This included 20% of one adult households aged 65+.
• Recent research by Turn2us and Fair By Design found that low-income households pay a ‘poverty premium’ in buying their goods and services of £478per year.
Worried about your personal finances and debt? Speak to a debt adviser as soon as possible. If you are struggling help is available in the form of payment breaks, breathing space, formal and informal debt solutions.
