UK households face £6bn debts because of Covid-19, says charity/ Almost £38 million support package for debt advice providers helping people affected by Coronavirus.

British households are expected to rack up debts worth a combined £6bn because of the coronavirus crisis, as millions of people fall behind on credit card payments, council tax and utility bills.

Sounding the alarm as the economic fallout from the health emergency mounts, the StepChange debt advice charity said 4.6m households risked building up dangerous levels of debt because of the pandemic.

The charity warned that debts racked up during the crisis would stifle the country’s economic recovery and that debt advisory services would be deluged once the reality of people’s situations began to hit home in the coming months.

An extra £37.8 million support package will be available to debt advice providers this year so they can continue to provide essential services to help more people who are struggling with their finances due to coronavirus, ministers have announced.

The Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) is responsible for overseeing the allocation of the funds, including to charities, for debt advice and other money guidance services. 

The support package, which will bring the MaPS budget for debt advice to over £100 million this financial year, will help providers to deliver advice to more people in England who may be experiencing financial problems due to coronavirus.