Households burying heads in the sand despite being average £249 worse off each month due to rising costs

dailyrecord.co.uk:

As rising living costs leave households £249 poorer a month on average, research from Nationwide Building Society has discovered that one in eight people are putting off getting the help they need.

The poll comes a month after Britain’s biggest building society launched its freephone cost of living hotline and is gearing up to provide financial health checks to members before winter by offering appointments in branch, over the phone or video.

According to the survey of more than 2,000 people across the UK, more than eight in 10 (83%) people are worried about the rising cost of living on their household finances, with six per cent saying they are already in serious financial difficulty.

Despite many already having cut back on costs, more than seven in 10 (71%) feel they have cut back as far as they can. Despite this, around one in eight (12%) are avoiding seeking any additional support and are instead relying on their situation naturally improving, with younger people nearly five times more likely to avoid seeking help (19% for 16-24-year-olds vs 4% for those aged 55 and over).While getting support early for financial difficulties can often resolve the issue sooner, when it comes to talking to banks or building societies, half (50%) of people worry about the ramifications.Worries include having their credit score impacted (30% worried), being charged higher rates for credit (27%), prevented from getting credit (26%) or having their credit limit cut (21%).Fewer than a fifth (19%) would speak to their bank or building society if they were struggling.