Council tax and water arrears among clients rise to 33% and 23%

The proportion of StepChange clients in arrears on council tax reached 33% in June 2023 and water arrears reached 23%, the charity's monthly client data report shows. Both figures rose by two percentage points month on month among clients responsible for paying each bill type, returning to levels last recorded in March 2023¹.

The charity said 15,677 clients accessed full debt advice in June 2023, which it described as 11 percentage points higher than June 2022, when the figure was 14,132¹. Its website had 309,346 users in June 2023, against 294,698 in June 2022¹.

The most common reason clients gave for their debt was a cost of living increase, cited by 26% in June 2023. That was one percentage point lower than May 2023 (27%) but eight percentage points higher than a year earlier, when it stood at 18%¹.

Other debt types also moved. The proportion of clients with credit card debt (66%), personal loan debt (45%) and overdraft debt (33%) each rose by one percentage point between May and June 2023¹. The share of clients receiving Universal Credit was unchanged at 38% in June 2023, after rising three percentage points from 35% in April to 38% in May¹.

The report gives the June levels and the size of the month-on-month changes directly; it does not give the May levels for council tax, water, credit card, personal loan or overdraft arrears¹.

Why it matters for households

The figures describe people who have already sought free debt advice from a charity, not the whole population, so they indicate the pressures facing households in problem debt rather than arrears rates across the UK. Within that group, a third were behind on Council tax arrears in June 2023 and nearly a quarter were behind on water bills, both having risen over the month.

Council tax arrears can lead to court action and enforcement, and water arrears can affect a household's ability to switch supplier or lead to payment arrangements being imposed. The report does not set out what happens to individual clients after advice, and it does not give figures for the amounts owed or for how long people had been in arrears. It also does not break the arrears figures down by nation, age or income, so the position in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland separately has not been reported.

The cost of living increase remained the single most cited reason for debt, at 26% in June 2023, down one percentage point on the month but well above the 18% recorded in June 2022¹. More detail on bill arrears is set out in the site's guide to Energy and water bill arrears, and the wider picture is covered in the debt hub.

What happens next

StepChange publishes this data monthly, and the June 2023 report is the latest in the series¹. No further dated announcements are set out in the report.