One in three households with kids will wrestle to afford a household Christmas this yr, in line with a brand new report.
The YouGov ballot of greater than 2,000 adults additionally discovered that an estimated 8% of the inhabitants – round 4 million folks – can be counting on credit score to cowl their prices over the festive interval.
Debt charity StepChange, which commissioned the survey, stated it got here after “two years of cost of living pressures” on family budgets, with costs remaining excessive regardless of the current easing within the price of inflation.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has additionally issued a renewed warning that the tempo of store worth rises might even begin going again up once more in 2024, as companies face quite a lot of extra headwinds within the new yr.
StepChange chief government Vikki Brownridge stated: “People, particularly these with kids, understandably really feel pressured round Christmas time to spend cash to create particular moments and reminiscences with their family members.
“However this pressure can often encourage people to spend more than they can afford, and turn to credit to cover these costs.
“Against a backdrop of virtually two years of excessive inflation, it’s totally possible that relying too closely on credit score at Christmas might result in debt issues within the New Year.”
She added: “At StepChange, we see a few of our busiest days throughout January every year, with final January being our busiest month for a number of years.”
The ballot discovered that total round one in 4 folks worry they are going to wrestle to afford further bills this festive season. Some 2% of respondents – the equal of round a million folks – stated they’d not have a good time Christmas in any respect because of the price.
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Meanwhile separate figures from the BRC and NielsenIQ printed at this time present that meals worth inflation eased once more to 7.8% in November, down from 8.8% in October.
The total price of store worth inflation additionally fell to 4.3% within the 12 months to November, down from 5.2% in October.
However it comes after the BRC final week expressed fears in regards to the new yr because it warned that the authorities’s autumn assertion was a “sell out” that had let companies down.
The retail business physique’s chief government Helen Dickinson reiterated these issues on Tuesday as she insisted retailers have been “committed to delivering an affordable Christmas for their customers”.
But she added: “They face new headwinds in 2024 – from government-imposed increases in business rates bills, to the hidden costs of complying with new regulations.
“Combining these with the greatest rise to the National Living Wage on document will possible stall and even reverse progress made up to now on bringing down inflation, notably in meals.”
Source: information.sky.com”