The financial lives of UK people with debts in 2024

Over the last few years, I have written blogs based on the findings of MaPS’ Debt Need Survey. As I mentioned in last year’s blog, we review our approach each year to strengthen data quality control. As an arm’s length government body, we also need to make the best possible use of our research budget at a time of economic change.

This has led us to combine elements of our annual Debt Need Survey with our Adult Financial Wellbeing Survey that took place every three years. From now on, we will be conducting MoneyView every year to give us a holistic picture of adults’ personal finances. See the results of our MoneyView 2025 survey, including breakdowns by each UK nation.

We have also included face-to-face interviewing to access the opinions of people aged 75+ and those living in socially deprived communities. As in previous years, we have used best practice techniques to identify the small minority of online interviews that don't seem to represent considered and realistic responses to the questions we ask.

The measure we use is unchanged from previous years, using the same questions from the Debt Need Survey. It identifies the people who need debt advice and those who are at risk of needing it if their situation does not improve. Respondents are broken down into:

• people showing no signs of needing advice or guidance
• people in the ‘at risk’ category, who would benefit from money guidance via our MoneyHelper websiteOpens in a new window or other sources, or those at a tipping point who need to seek help before their situation worsens
• people who definitely need regulated debt advice.

See an explanation of the need for debt advice measure developed by MaPS (PDF, 230 KB)Opens in a new window.

In 2024, 14% of the UK adult population fell into the ‘need advice’ category - equivalent to 7.3 million people.

22%, or 11.7 million people, are in our ‘at-risk’ category.  They are struggling to keep up to date with bills and credit commitments, or they are running short of money for essentials and using high-cost credit instead.

Most people in the UK - 64% of the population or 34.1 million people - don’t need debt advice.

Download a graph showing how many people need debt advice (PNG, 80 KB).Opens in a new window

Demographically, there hasn't been much change in the profile of people who need debt advice. They are typically:

• under 35 years old
• in households with children and an annual household income of less than £30,000 before tax)
• renting their home from social or private landlords
• more likely to come from ethnic minority communities
• in less stable and secure employment (fixed-term or zero hours contracts, gig economy, casual or seasonal work).

People in the at-risk group tend to be older, have higher household incomes, are permanently employed and are more of a mixture of tenants and homeowners. 

Our new MoneyView survey asks people about a wider range of financial wellbeing topics, so we get a fuller picture of their financial lives. This reveals that many of our at-risk group are managing their finances in a similar way to people who already need debt advice.

They also show signs of financial vulnerability so changes to the cost-of-living, energy pricing and higher mortgage rates could ‘tip them over’ into needing debt advice. They are also vulnerable to life events such as ill health or redundancy which would affect their household income.

People in these two groups are more likely to find themselves in situations where they don’t have money coming in when bills need to be paid on a regular basis.  This is leading to the use of borrowing to pay for day-to-day expenses.

* 'UK population' percentages in the tables, graphics and text of this blog are based on the results from everyone interviewed in MoneyView. Detailed demographic quotas and weighting were used that accurately represent the UK population.

The use of credit and Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services is part of many people’s lives, and most people use it with no adverse effects. But the way that these two groups are borrowing does give us cause for concern. MaPS raised concerns about the use of BNPL in February 2022.

The table above shows us that over 40% of people who need debt advice are borrowing to pay for essentials due to a lack of funds and a minority are getting behind with BNPL payments. A lower proportion of the at-risk group are doing the same.

Both groups are also finding it harder to heat their homes and are opting out of having home contents insurance. Most are regularly worrying about money each month.

Using cash to pay for most things can be used as a method of budgeting, it’s easy to keep track of what money you have and prevents overspending because you can only spend what you have.

Four in ten (39%) people who need debt advice are using cash for most or all of their spending, which makes them stand out from the population as a whole. Unfortunately, this is not always easy for this group with one in five (19%) saying that it is difficult to access cash from a bank or ATM.

Download a graph showing use of and ease of access to cash (PNG, 44 KB).Opens in a new window

Moving away from regular, day-to-day finances, we asked how people could cope with two income shocks: 

• an unexpected bill
• the loss of the main source of household income.

The results above show that the at-risk group are remarkably similar to people needing debt advice. Nearly half could not cover an unexpected expense of over £300 (for example a domestic appliance breaking down) or cope with everyday expenses for more than a month in the event of (for example) a job loss.

Looking further into the future, we can also see how these three groups are planning to fund their retirement. The ‘need debt advice’ group have immediate challenges to address before their plans for later life. We asked people of working age (18-65) about this.

Looking at the UK population as a whole, people are planning to rely on 2-3 main funding sources of funding for retirement:

• personal or workplace pensions
• the State Pension
• savings and/or investments.

It’s also interesting to note that a quarter (26%) are planning to use their State Pension as the main source of their retirement income. At time of writing, this will be a maximum of £11,973 per annum. This is below the Pensions and Lifetime Savings AssociationOpens in a new window’s suggested minimum income for a single person of £13,400 and would lead to retirement on a limited income.

People who currently need debt advice are planning a different retirement with a smaller number of funding resources, less use of personal or workplace pensions, continued employment and income from property.

Download a graph showing planned sources of funding for retirement (PNG, 24 KB).Opens in a new window

The age at which people plan to retire is also quite varied across the three groups. This has implications for the viability of these plans which involve the State Pension for most people.

Currently, the State Pension age is 66 and will rise to 68 by 2046. In that context, retiring under 60 could be difficult to realise, particularly for people who currently need debt advice.

We will continue to monitor the need for debt advice in the UK, using the insights we gain to inform our policy decisions and support the agencies we fund to deliver debt advice. We will also be sharing more insights from MoneyView through the rest of 2026.