Nearly Half of Scots ‘Run Out of Money by Payday’

The impact of the pandemic on people’s finances this year has left almost half of all Scots running out of money before they reach their next pay packet.

That’s according to research carried out by YouGov on behalf of Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS), which has highlighted just how difficult things have become financially for individuals and households across Scotland during the Covid-19 crisis.

Almost one in three of the people in Scotland who run out of money prior to payday as of late October say that their financial situations have worsened since the onset of the pandemic in March this year.

Strikingly, around 20 per cent of those people who now struggle to make ends meet each month say they weren’t having financial difficulties prior to the virus crisis, suggesting they’ve been hit hard by what’s unfolded over the course of 2020.

Only five per cent of the Scots polled said that their financial situation had improved in the context of the Covid-19 restrictions, with a huge number clearly being pushed into debt problems by the realities of the pandemic.

CAS has pointed out that while the impact of the virus has been terrible for a lot of people across Scotland, the situation would have been much worse if it weren’t for public policy interventions including the government’s furlough schemes and the payment breaks offered by prominent lenders.

“Ultimately though, almost half of people have run out of money before payday since restrictions began, with nearly 1 in 3 of those people seeing their finances worsen during this time,” noted Myles Fitt, a financial health spokesperson with the CAS.

“Given how many people were on a financial verge before the virus struck, living from pay day to pay day and just making enough to cover essential bills, there’s a real risk Covid will push substantial amounts of people into debt and destitution,” he added.

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