Almost half fear unexpected £100 bill 'would leave them struggling to pay rent or mortgage'

Almost half of adults fear an unexpected £100 bill would leave them struggling to pay their rent or mortgage.

The survey for the Salvation Army found 48% of people were extremely or very concerned over an extra expense. A further 22% of the 1,000 people polled said they were "fairly concerned" while 29% said they were not concerned, the charity said.

The Salvation Army’s Captain John Clifton said: “When nearly half of people are so financially fragile that they are living in fear of a £100 bill, something has gone very wrong — and the Government must take notice." He said to protect those who are struggling the government must unfreeze housing benefit or risk pushing "thousands more over the cliff edge into homelessness".

At the last year Chancellor said the local housing allowance (LHA) will remain at existing levels until 2026. It was also frozen multiple times during the Conservatives' 14-year spell in government.

Mr Clifton added: “Rent and bills have gone up and welfare support has gone down. Every day at our food banks, debt and employment advice services, churches and community centres we see the reality of what it’s like for people who can’t afford to feed, clothe and house themselves and their families.

“With so many living on a knife-edge, the risk of homelessness is no longer something that happens to ‘other people’ — it’s becoming a real concern for ordinary households across the country.”

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A government spokesman said: “No one should be in poverty. That’s why we’ve extended the Household Support Fund and Discretionary Housing Payments for 2025-26 to protect the most vulnerable while we fix the fundamentals of the social security system, so people don’t rely on crisis support.

“Alongside this, we have increased the National Living Wage, uprated benefits and are helping over one million households having introduced a Fair Repayment Rate on deductions, on top of reviewing Universal Credit to ensure it can best contribute to our aims from tackling poverty and making work pay.

"Meanwhile, we are boosting the Affordable Housing Programme by £2bn which will build 18,000 new social and affordable homes – getting families into safe and decent homes while supporting our Plan for Change milestone of 1.5 million new homes by the next Parliament and driving economic growth.”

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