Over a third of Scots are worried they will not be able to pay their bills this year, a new poll has found.
Almost a third (32%) are also concerned about the cost of living and anxious about being able to afford food and clothing.
The poll of 1,006 adults across Scotland for Advice Direct Scotland revealed 34% were either "quite worried" or "very worried" about fixed monthly costs such as mortgage or rent payments, energy bills and insurance.
Of the 654 respondents who had credit cards, just over half (51%) said they could afford to pay off their balance each month while almost a quarter (23%) are only able to pay off the minimum amount required each month.
The survey, carried out by polling firm Survation, also showed 44% have reduced spending on non-essential items during the pandemic, 28% cut down on food and groceries and 20% dipped into saving to cover expenses.
Andrew Bartlett, chief executive of Advice Direct Scotland, said: "This poll paints a stark picture of the level of financial worry faced by many Scots.
"More than a third are concerned about paying their monthly commitments over the next year, and just under a third are worried about their living costs.
"It's clear that the pandemic has had a devastating financial impact on many families in Scotland, with many reducing their outgoings and even dipping into their savings.
"A significant proportion of Scots with a credit card are also struggling to pay off the minimum balance."
The poll was carried out ahead of Advice Direct Scotland launching a service to provide free information and support with debt-related issues.
Mr Bartlett continued: "For those concerned about their financial commitments, we're very pleased to have launched moneyadvice.scot, adding free debt advice to our extensive advice service.
"Our specialist debt advisers are on hand if you have personal financial worries, are struggling with debt, or need a way of getting back on track."
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