Cost-of-living crisis has forced over 650,000 Scots into debt | Personal Finance | Finance

A charity has warned that loads of people in Scotland are getting into debt or finding their money troubles are getting worse because things cost more these days.

Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) did some research and found out that 84 percent of folks with debts said the higher prices for food and keeping their homes warm were making their debt problems bigger.

They think about 657,323 people in Scotland are having this trouble.

CAS is shouting out to everyone who’s worried about paying bills or feeling stressed about their debts to come and get help from them. They’ve got a campaign going on called Stressed about Debt.

The charity looks after 59 Citizens Advice Bureaux all over Scotland. They’re there to help make people’s money situations better, and sometimes they can even get rid of some of the debt.

Since last spring, these advice places have managed to cancel more than £11 million of debt for people. On average, each person had over £12,600 wiped off what they owed.

Jemiel Benison from CAS said: “This has been the worst cost-of-living crisis in memory, and the legacy of it is now clear hundreds of thousands of people with new debt issues, whether that is entering debt for the first time or seeing their existing debt get worse.”

“After years of higher costs for food, energy and housing it is completely understandable that people find themselves behind on bills. Anyone can find themselves in debt when their income stays the same but the costs of everything else just go up and up.”

“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 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. Our advice is impartial, confidential and crucially free we don’t charge for our advice, and we never will.”