It’s time to stop blaming people for being in debt, academic argues

When the cost of living means increasing numbers cannot make ends meet, we should stop blaming people for having debt problems, an academic says.

Over the course of seven years, Dr Ryan Davey from Cardiff University spent 18 months living in a community with high levels of debt problems. His immersive fieldwork with 34 local residents, along with interviewing debt advisers and their clients nationwide, reveals how the rising cost of living is affecting lower-income groups.

More and more people are borrowing money to make ends meet, because they cannot get by on wages alone, he found.

Dr Davey, based at the University’s School of Social Sciences, said: “I worked in a neighbourhood with high social housing and many low-income households.

“Many people were working, but their wages were not enough to live on. As a result, most residents had other income streams, such as borrowing money, claiming benefits, or ‘informal’ practices, such as cash-in-hand work. Spending prolonged time there uncovered a much broader reality in Britain today: credit has become one of very few options for lower-income groups.

“And yet these income sources expose people to various risks of losing income or possessions, from harsh benefit sanctions to bailiffs seizing household goods or eviction.”

Blame

One local resident he interviewed said: “Benefits and loans are the only things you can rely on these days.”

Dr Davey said: “In this context, we need to think differently about people who do not pay their debts. We still tend to blame people for being in debt, viewing it as an individual responsibility. But it is time to question the general moral idea that if you have a debt you morally ought to repay it no matter what.

“Take the example of people ignoring their debts, by hanging up the telephone on debt collectors or throwing letters in the bin. Usually they are blamed as irresponsible or lacking financial skills. But ignoring debts is often a deliberate response to a situation that people find immoral or harmful to their health.”

One local resident said: “They can’t go for everyone who doesn’t pay.”

‘A quiet rebellion’

Dr Davey shared: “I was surprised to find that many people who have debt problems, especially over the long term, have found ways to stay optimistic despite their circumstances being conducive to mental and emotional distress. Ignoring debts is one way of doing this.

“The rising cost of living means more people are borrowing money for essential costs like rent, energy or food. Debt levels are higher than they were during the 2008 global financial crisis, and lenders charge the highest interest to those least able to pay for it. This is a systemic issue.”

Dr Davey lived on the housing estate in the south of England to build relationships and trust with people in the community.

The anonymous accounts have formed the basis of his book, The Personal Life of Debt: Coercion, Subjectivity and Inequality in Britain, which is the first full-length ethnography of debt problems in the UK.

Dr Davey added: “A quiet rebellion is taking place of people who see the demands of debt collectors as unjust and intolerable.

“If we really want to break the vicious cycle of debt, we need to acknowledge their point of view.”