Rising defaults show worrying trend for households across Britain

8 October 2026

The latest edition of the Bank of England’s Credit Conditions Survey published today shows rising defaults for unsecured lending, suggesting households are struggling to keep up with their regular credit commitments. The charity says this shows a “worrying trend” as household budgets struggle to cope with repeated cost of living shocks.

StepChange polling conducted by YouGov found that two in five (38%) people found it difficult to keep up with household bills and credit commitments in the last few months. What’s more, amongst StepChange clients, the proportion with credit card debt has risen to three in four (75%), up from two in three (69%) in August 2025.

Adam Butler, Public Policy Manager at StepChange, said:

“With further price shocks to come in the winter with energy price rises, interest rates trending upwards, and wider consumer prices continuing to rise above the Bank’s target, we expect this to feed through into our advice service with continuing increased demand for support, with the charity already supporting 20% more clients than expected this year.”

Notes to Editors

• The Bank of England’s Credit Conditions Survey (Q3) can be found here: Credit Conditions Survey - 2026 Q3 | Bank of England – the UK's central bank
• All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 2,142 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 9th - 10th July 2026. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all UK adults (aged 18+).