Millions of Brits ‘can’t afford to pay bills’

Figures from MoneyExpert show that each month in the UK there are around 1.23 million household bills going unpaid and that during the last half-year over 7.4 million payment demands have been ignored nationwide.

Council tax demands and mobile phone tariffs, as well as a range of utility bills, are increasingly going unpaid, reports the price comparison firm, which points to rising interest rates as part of the reason why.

Sean Gardner, chief executive of MoneyExpert, said: “It is clear that many of us are under financial pressure. The Bank of England has increased interest rates twice this year with the threat of a third rise during the summer.

“It was inevitable that once interest rates started rising that something had to give and it is worrying to find that people are missing basic household bills.”

Liberal Democrat MP Andrew Stunnell recently suggested council tax bills were squeezing the finances of “hard-working families and pensioners” across the UK.