Organisation is urging public to seek support

Hundreds of thousands of people have missed a debt repayment in the past year, new analysis from Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) reveals.

The charity analysed polling from YouGov which found that 8% of people had missed a debt repayment at least once in the past year.

That works at an estimated 368,249 people.

Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) is running the Stressed about Debt campaign, which encourages people who are worried about their bills or stressed about debt to seek advice from the Citizens Advice network.

The value of debt dealt with by CABs last winter was £23 million. This represents a 25% increase in the value of debt brought to CABs and a 17% increase in people seeking debt advice compared to last year. 

The average debt a complex debt client brings to a CAB is £8,876.17. A complex debt is when someone is seeking debt advice for multiple debts at once.

CAS financial health spokesperson Myles Fitt said: “There is a vicious cycle element to debt, especially during a cost-of-living crisis. Your income isn’t covering your outgoings to you fall into debt as a result – either through using commercial credit or falling behind on your bills to creditors.

“But the cost of those additional repayments means your income needs to stretch even further and suddenly you are trapped in a vicious cycle.

“We want people who are stressed about their debts to seek advice and support from the Citizens Advice network. You don’t need to go to a CAB in-person to get advice, instead you can check our online advice pages or use our interactive self-help tools.

“Our network gets real results for people – last year people who saw a gain having sought advice were more than £3,700 better off.”