EIGHTY per cent of single parents surveyed by Christians Against Poverty (CAP) are “scared to answer the phone due to being in debt”, the charity reports. For the same reason, 65 per cent are “scared to answer the door”.
The charity’s report, No Time to Lose, published on Wednesday, is based on analysis of data from its new clients — 2225 UK-wide client households who “had a Financial Statement activated for the first time in 2024”. The report suggests that out of the clients who are parents, 26 per cent are single mothers and 2 per cent single fathers.
One CAP client, Jolene, said: “My ex-partner left, which meant not only was I now responsible for paying back all the bills for the household items, but I had also been a guarantor for a loan for him, and I was stuck paying off his debts as well.”
She managed for a year, but bills increased. “My electricity all of a sudden went to triple the price.” It was a “deeply scary” experience: she “didn’t sleep properly” because her “head was permanently calculating, worrying about where the next meal was going to come from”.
The report says: “Amongst our clients, single parents showed signs of high levels of worry and fear, when asked about the effects of being in debt.” A total of 99 per cent were “unable to save money” last year.
Jolene received support from her church’s debt centre and was assigned a debt coach. Across the UK, CAP works with churches in a free service to help people with repayment plans to become debt-free.
The average new client in 2024 had 12 different debts, the report says. Four of these, amounting to an average of more than £4600, were priority debts — such as rent, council tax, energy, water, and tax — defined as having “serious consequences” if not paid.
Of all new CAP clients, 65 per cent had personal problems, and for 58 per cent, this key issue related to mental health. One quarter said that mental health was the main reason for their getting into debt; low income, relationship breakdown, and long-term illness accounted for nine per cent; budgeting problems accounted for eight per cent; unemployment accounted for five per cent; addiction, financial abuse, and bereavement each accounted for four per cent, and overspending for three per cent.
Last year, 2436 CAP clients became debt-free, “despite very difficult financial circumstances for households”, the charity says. Yet people still hesitate to seek help with debt-management, it says.
The report also includes CAP’s annual debt-help client survey. Of the 527 UK adults who took part online and by phone in November and December 2024, just six per cent had sought help immediately after getting into debt. Reasons given for not doing so included feelings of shame (56 per cent), embarrassment (63 per cent), guilt (48 per cent), and fear (46 per cent).
The manager of a debt centre at West Glasgow New Church, Maureen Burke, said: “For many of my clients, when they first get in touch with us they are probably at their lowest point. . . Three out of the five [clients] basically said, ‘We wouldn’t be here if we hadn’t had that help’. Suicide is a very big factor in their lives, and it felt like the only option to them.”
Nearly half (49 per cent) of respondents “had considered or attempted suicide as a way out of debt before seeking help”.
The chief executive of CAP, Stewart McCulloch, said: “This heartbreakingly high figure continues to be a stark reminder that poverty takes more than people’s possessions or money: it steals their very lives.”
The full report can be read on the CAP website.