Debts and the era

In the first half of the 1950s people were still living with post war austerity and food rationing. There were not the range of goods to buy but from the mid 1950s onwards, consumerism grew and people did start to get into debt. There were hire purchase agreements for large objects like furniture. TVs were rented. Provident loans gave quick cash. As a child growing up in the mid 1950s and 1960s, our mum bought our clothes fom the tally man, paying him weekly instalments at the door.

Poor people have long had to borrow and budget to meet basic needs. My mother worked full-time in a factory but after paying for rent and food there was little left for anything else. Our father had left when we were young and did not support us. I remember she had to cash in a life insurance policy to buy my secondary school uniform. That was the means by which we lived. We did not have a car or holidays. I don’t think any of this was unusual for poor working class families in that era, maybe a little easier if there was a man's wage coming in.

It's a very complex problem but lets say you are in low paid work and live in a rented house on a short term lease. You are served a no fault section 21 at the end of your 6 months and need to put a deposit down on a new rental as you'll have to wait months for your previous deposit to be released. Then you'll have to hire a van to move your stuff. You move to your new short term rental home, your children's previous school is too far away so you enrol them in the new school, you need to buy new uniform, you still have bills to pay on your previous property, your deposit still hasn't been repaid. It might be another 4 weeks until your deposit is repaid as the previous landlord said the cooked is dirty and there is a mark on the wall and some on the carpet, the grass is overgrown. You'd forgotten to take photographs, you apply for credit to keep things going. It has been 6 months now and the new landlord also serves a section 21 as she wants to sell the house, you will have to move again. Your Mum is ill and you need time off work to look after her...the kids need new shoes again as you could only afford them from asda and they don't last very long, Simon needs a new coat as he never stops growing. It isn't called the poverty trap for nothing.

Your mum sounds / sounded a wise lady.

From my experience ( worked in banking ) it’s usually people who are reasonably well off who have all the loans & credit cards, because they’re the only ones who can afford the payments ( plus people are credit scored so need a regular income etc ) they get into debt to fund a certain lifestyle. Most of them don’t see it as a problem - until they lose their job.

The really poor can’t get credit so they either live on what they’ve got or rely on unscrupulous lenders / loan sharks.

Sorry, I think I went slightly off topic - sorry ?

“Never a borrower or a lender be” - my mother’s mantra !! Although I once loaned £5000 to a very, very dear friend who was starting a business. We had a written agreement regarding repayments and to be fair, she kept her word. Another of my wise mum’s words - “only lend an amount that you can afford to lose”