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What in buggery does this have to do with them?

Millions of people in the UK are struggling to pay their bills, according to the City watchdog, which said a growing proportion of the population is having trouble making ends meet.

A survey by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) laid bare the impact of the cost of living crisis, saying about one in four (24%) of adults in the UK were either in financial difficulty or would fall into trouble if they suffered a financial shock.

The FCA found that about 7.8 million people were finding it a heavy burden to keep up with their bills, an increase of about 2.5 million people since 2020, as wage growth failed to keep pace with soaring inflation at 40-year highs, currently at 10.1%.

The FCA? Those are the people supposedly stopping financial sharks from ripping people off. What have they go to do with this sort of shit? And why in buggery are they spending money on surveys about it?

15 thoughts on “What in buggery does this have to do with them?”

  1. It’s the same sort if bureaucratico erreach that allows the Advertising Standards Authority to dictate to Kelloggs wgat goes into their cereals.

    First, kill all the quangos…

  2. Idk Tim. Otoh, I also dunno how TPTB expect to hammer the already indebted general public with mortgage hikes, tax increases, food price inflation and £6000 energy bills – all at the same time as a brutal tightening of the jobs market and a high risk of financial crises – without stuff unraveling PDQ.

    The average person is probably only ever about 3 months or so away from homelessness, so it’s likely to get spicy. Poll Tax riots spicy, maybe?

  3. Bloke in the Fourth Reich

    Because people who struggle to pay their bills are at risk of turning to lenders who charge unconscionable interest rates, which very much is the FCA’s beat?

    Questions from Tim we can answer.

  4. Bloke in the Fourth Reich

    Steve, I think a substantial minority are a lot less than 3 months away from starvation and eviction. The low interest rates for decades made it rational for everyone, not just governments, to spend future income they will never be able to generate. I have too many rightpondian colleagues living at a huge stretch in a vast property they don’t need, maxed out on several credit cards. Because it’s nice to have a big house and prices can only go up so it’s an investment, see.

    Any of them get their “two weeks” and they will be off to the food bank PDQ.

  5. Customers in Financial Difficulty regulations. Plus the desire of every bureaucracy to have ‘values’ and a sense of ‘mission’ so that their employee IDs valued professionals can pretend they don’t spend their lives pushing virtualised paper.

    And probably something about the leaders preferring to warble about the news rather than take on concrete responsibilities with demonstrable failure standards.

  6. about one in four (24%) of adults in the UK were either in financial difficulty or would fall into trouble if they suffered a financial shock

    Sketchy. Conflating actually being on your uppers now with being vulnerable to some sort of (unspecified) crisis. Many people (today and always) would ‘fall into trouble’ after suffering ‘a financial shock’, depending of course how you define those things.

    None of this has anything to do with the FCA; its remit is do make sure lenders operate within the law, not how many people may or may not use certain types of lender.

  7. Theophrastus (2066)

    “What have they go to do with this sort of shit? And why in buggery are they spending money on surveys about it?”

    The second and third of Robert Conquest’s Three Laws of Politics apply here:

    Any organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left-wing.
    And:
    The simplest way to explain the behaviour of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies.

  8. Because people who struggle to pay their bills are at risk of turning to lenders who charge unconscionable interest rates, which very much is the FCA’s beat?

    Those types of lenders aren’t responsible to the FCA (or anyone else).

  9. Of course Chris Miller is correct but before a combination of poorly-designed regulation and ill-chosen response thereto destroyed the principal doorstep lenders who were answerable to the FCA, those struggling might well have turned to Provident Financial or London Scottish to meet short-term cash needs.

  10. “I have too many rightpondian (leftpondian) colleagues living at a huge stretch in a vast property they don’t need, maxed out on several credit cards.”

    Not surprising if they live in an area which restricts housing. Someone trying to get a house needs to outspend everyone else looking at interest rates and saying YOLO.

    Solution would be to move somewhere where the cost of housing is lower. Many did that.

    Others couldn’t possibly miss out on Bay Area house parties (insert substitute fashionable area as applicable), and are now seeing the downside to following the Joneses.

  11. Oh, the irony! The FCA (and their previous incarnation the FCA) cost me thousands and thousands of pounds and years of my time, for no discernible personal benefit. Grrr!!

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