A "disgraceful" number of Scots are struggling to pay their rent or mortgage - with the number rising by nearly a third in the last two years.
That is the view of Shelter Scotland which commissoned research which found that around one in eight (12%) Scots are sweating over covering their accommodation costs - up from nearly one in ten (9%) when the same survey was done two years ago.
New research by YouGov found that nearly 4 in 10 say they would struggle to pay their rent or mortgage if it rose by as little as £50 a month during 2019, while 39% admitted they had at least once borrowed money from a friend, used a credit card or used their savings to pay their rent or mortgage.
Graeme Brown, director of Shelter Scotland, said: “It’s a disgrace that in 21st century Scotland so many people should have to worry about the basic right of keeping a roof over their heads.
“It’s quite clear from these numbers that tens of thousands of people in Scotland are entering 2019 worrying about meeting the costs of their rent or mortgage over the next few months and that many thousands more would struggle with even a modest rise on those costs.
“A perfect storm of austerity, harsh welfare reforms, stagnant wages, job insecurity and the high cost of housing are making it harder for people to make ends meet and plan for the future.
Shelter Scotland, which said 600 people were surveyed for their new report, is warning that ignoring money worries rather than seeking advice could lead to people’s homes being put at risk. Last year the charity said it had helped more people than ever before via its free national helpline, digital chat and online advice - with 46% of those helped needing advice on keeping their home.
The charity says one household every 18 minutes was made homeless in Scotland last year, with nearly 11,000 households forced to live in temporary accommodation, including more than 14,000 children.
Last year Scottish Government figures showed that one million Scots were living in poverty after the had paid their rent or mortgage - and that the problem has worsened in recent years.
Almost a quarter of children were classed as living below the poverty line after housing costs were taken into account, the Scottish Government figures showed.
The statistics, which related to the three-year period between 2014 and 2016, were described as “scandalous” and “unacceptable” by Holyrood’s opposition parties.
They showed that every year around 1m Scots are in poverty after paying their housing costs, an increase of 30,000 on the previous three years and the highest total since 2002 to 2005.
Mr Brown added: “It’s absolutely vital that people who do find themselves struggling to make ends meet and keep a roof over their heads should seek help sooner rather than later. It’s much better to put a plan in place to deal with debt and arrears in the early stages rather than wait for eviction notices and court orders.
“All year round our teams are ready to help, but, in order to do so, we need help from the public so we can keep up our fight against bad housing and homelessness."
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Under the UK Government’s austerity programme and welfare cuts, money is being taken from the pockets of low income families, pushing them into crisis, debt and poverty.
"We spent more than £127 million last year to try and mitigate that, and provide vital support for low income households – something we will continue to do in 2019.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel