40% unable to cover £300 emergency bill earn above median salary, report finds
More than a third (35%) of UK adults said they were borrowing to cover essentials such as food, heating and rent.
Four in 10 people unable to cover a £300 emergency expense now earn above the national median salary, according to a report from Plend and Triple Point, suggesting financial insecurity is increasingly affecting middle-income households.
The report found that 40% of those who could not meet the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) benchmark for financial resilience earned above the national median salary.
More than a third (35%) of UK adults said they were borrowing to cover essentials such as food, heating and rent, while 89% reported feeling the impact of the cost of living crisis over the past year, up from 84% a year earlier.
The research also found that 37% of UK adults believed access to a genuinely low-interest loan would improve their financial situation, rising to 58% among those aged 18 to 34.
According to the report, traditional credit scoring continues to exclude many borrowers because it relies heavily on long credit histories and stable employment, rather than current financial behaviour.
It called for wider adoption of open banking to assess applicants using factors such as income, rent payments and everyday spending.
The findings showed that among people with unstable incomes who held a credit card, 80% met or exceeded their minimum monthly repayments, suggesting many borrowers are more creditworthy than traditional scoring models indicate.
The report recommended that the Government and Financial Conduct Authority embed open banking into mainstream credit assessments.
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