Quarter of Scots Losing Sleep Over Money Worries

Close to one in four of 2,000 Scots polled recently said they’ve been losing sleep over their financial situation as the country’s cost of living crisis continues to worsen.

Debt problems and financial concerns more generally are understood to be heightening with every week that passes currently as prices in shops and bills continue to increase at an unusually rapid pace.

For almost a quarter of Scots, those mounting pressures are equating to a lack of sleep with anxiety levels rising and incomes being stretched towards breaking point in many cases.

The latest figures suggest that around 62 per cent of Scots feel worse off financially now than they did a year ago, with roughly 59 per cent expecting that their financial situation will get worse before it gets better.

Among Scots in some of the most economically deprived areas of the country, the proportion of people losing sleep due to money worries increases from 23 per cent to 30 per cent.

Families with children were found to be notably more likely to take on more debt in order to cover their costs than were their childless counterparts.

As many as 84 per cent of people said that they feel as if the overall economic situation in Scotland has got worse over the course of the past 12 months.

“These findings point to near universal concern over the cost-of-living crisis,” commented Mark Diffley, a director with the Diffley Partnership, who conducted the recent research.

“While the public appears to have largely moved on from the pandemic, this is not giving way to any evident optimism about Scotland’s future or direction of travel,” he added.

“Our polling finds extensive and, for some, acute anxiety over a cost-of-living crisis that is hitting people across all parts of society.”

Susan Murray, a director at the David Hulme Institute, which helped out with the research, said the polling of people across Scotland highlights the need for “urgent action to help those at the sharpest end of surging prices”.

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