This latest report provides insight into the demographic and debt information of new clients who first received debt advice in February 2022. It also includes the latest insights on our website traffic trends.
Our key findings from February 2022:
- StepChange provided full debt advice to around 13,500 new clients in February. This is only around 500 clients fewer than in January 2022 (14,000). However, around 15,700 clients received full debt advice in February 2021.
- There are continued signs that the cost of living is impacting households:
- Experiencing ‘a cost of living increase’ is the fourth most commonly cited reason for debt (11%), up by two percentage points from January (9%). ‘Needing credit to cover living expenses’ is the sixth most common reason for debt (7%).
- The proportion of clients who have fallen behind on energy bills has increased compared to the previous month
- A greater proportion of new clients had a negative budget at the time of advice in February (32%) than at any point in the previous 12 months
- The charity also continued to advise a high proportion of clients with children, accounting for almost half of all new clients in February (45%). This includes one quarter (24%) of clients who are single parents
Take a look at the full report to find out more.