One million homeowners take short-term high interest loans to cover mortgage, homeless charity warns

link: One million homeowners take short-term high interest loans to cover mortgage, homeless charity warns | Mail Online

Almost one million people took out a payday loan over the last 12 months to help them cover their mortgage or rent, a charity has warned.

Shelter says that around 7.8million Britons are struggling to keep up with their rent or mortgage payments, showing a sharp increase on a year ago.

Just over two per cent of people it questioned said they had taken out a high-interest payday loan for this purpose, around 979,000 people if the figures were projected nationally.

The charity said that the number of people constantly struggling to pay their rent or mortgage had increased by 44 per cent over the past year.

A fifth of those surveyed face a monthly battle to keep a roof over their heads meaning that as many as 7.8million people could be struggling.

Four per cent of rent or mortgage payers said they had fallen behind with their payments, which would be 1.4million people at a national level.

Around seven per cent of those surveyed said they used an unauthorised overdraft to help them cover their costs, and one in 10 of these people said they did so every month.

A mother-of-three called Mandy, from West Sussex, took out a payday loan after falling behind with her rent.

She told Shelter: 'I felt I had to take out the loan but found I couldn't pay it back the next month. It's just made everything 10 times worse. I am at my wits end and it can just feel completely hopeless.'