Thousands Could be Homeless by Christmas
Thousands of families face the threat of homelessness before the Christmas holidays, what you can do.
What’s more, with rents continuing their astronomic rise — barely a month goes by without one firm active in the rental market proclaiming a new record high — this is only likely to get worse.
We’ve never had it so tough
Last year, an adviser to the government, Lord Young, was forced to resign after an interview in which he suggested that as a nation, we had never had it so good (he’s back, with his own office in Number 10 now, by the way). A year on, that statement looks even dafter.
Inflation currently stands at a mammoth 5.2%, miles higher than the Bank of England’s target of 2%. And our salaries aren’t moving upwards at anything like that rate, if at all. Add to that the fact that job security continues to weaken, with unemployment now at a 17-year high, and it becomes clear that pennies have rarely been so tightly stretched. We can’t even rely on a return on our cash if we’ve managed to save in the past, with rates on savings accounts utterly underwhelming.
In fact, for some, it’s only the fact that interest rates are so low therefore keeping variable mortgage rates low too, that is keeping things from completely collapsing.
What to do
So, if you’re in a position where the bills are mounting up, and there’s little sign of things improving, what do you do?
Tackling your money issues early is always the best plan of action. And as BT used to say, it’s good to talk.
There are all sorts of charities and organisations which offer debt advice without charging. For example, there’s the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS). It’s not just the CCCS though, there’s also Citizens Advice, the National Debtline, and a host of others.
It’s also well worth having a chat with the firms you owe money. It may be that you can come to some sort of arrangement where you have longer to pay off the money you owe.
However, the absolute worst thing you can do is ignore your mounting debts, hoping that something will change and everything will be fine again. This ‘head in the sand’ attitude can end up making things a whole lot worse, and is utterly counterproductive.
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