Cash-strapped Britain: Millions of shoppers borrow just to stay alive as they use credit

Daily Mail ^ | 3/4/12 | Suzannah Hills

[Nachum]

More than half of Britons cannot cope on their current salaries with one in five forced to borrow money to buy groceries and other household essentials because of the soaring cost of living, a new survey revealed today. One in four people revealed they've had to use their savings to buy food or other daily essentials while one in five have gone into debt to do this. Another 10 per cent said they could envisage needing to borrow buy food in the future. Only 43 per cent currently feel they can afford to live on their current income while 36

[Nachum]

Full title: Cash-strapped Britain: Millions of shoppers borrow just to stay alive as they use credit for groceries

[kingu]

Still trying to find the proper figure for the percentage of Britains directly or indirectly employed by the government, but did find an interesting number buried in their employment report statistics...

Since August 2008, private sector wages have grown by 6.8%. During that same time, when government income has been drastically cut, public sector wages have risen a staggering 12.2%, nearly double the rate of growth of private sector wages.

I'm going to have to guess that a significant portion of the 40% who said they were doing alright are in the public sector.

[jmacusa]

Who are these cash-strapped Britons borrowing from?

[blam]

"Who are these cash-strapped Britons borrowing from? "

Don't be difficult.(ahem)

[Kickass Conservative]

Credit card debt is fueling the so called Obama recovery.
We are approaching the same levels of Consumer borrowing that were in place before the Recession hit. All that news that consumers were paying down their Credit Cards is now a distant memory.

History repeats itself, but back then the Deficit was around $300 Billion a year, not $1.3 Trillion a year, and the National Debt was 50% lower than it is today.

Imagine what things will look like when Federal Reserve Bank “created” / “invented” Interest Rates rise to reality levels.

Ain't nobody buying those Chevy Volts for cash. Heck, I'm seriously doubting that people can continue to afford buying Gas without adding it to their Credit Card balance.

[Graybeard58]

I’ve been buying groceries and gasoline as well as every other purchase I can with a credit card for the past several years. I pay in full every month and receive points. I track my transactions the same way I track my checking account, with a check register and on line.

I wonder if there is any of this going on in the U.K.?

Starting this year, my county will accept credit cards for payment of property taxes. I bought a new car a year ago and tried to talk the dealer into taking a credit card, he wouldn’t go for it.

[Winniesboy]

Since August 2008, private sector wages have grown by 6.8%. During that same time, when government income has been drastically cut, public sector wages have risen a staggering 12.2%, nearly double the rate of growth of private sector wages.

I'm going to have to guess that a significant portion of the 40% who said they were doing alright are in the public sector.

Maybe, maybe not. These figures are tempered by the public sector job cuts in the last year - 7% of the entire public sector workforce - as part of the Cameron government's budget cuts. The effect of these cuts would be to raise the average salary even without any increases in individual pay, since the most recent recruits (and therefore the lowest paid) are usually sacked first.

[Caulkhead]

“Still trying to find the proper figure for the percentage of Britains directly or indirectly employed by the government,”

Here you go:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/nov/21/public-sector-employment-uk-map

The trend is now heavily downward since labour left office. . . . .