A report by Christians Against Poverty (CAP), called Changing Perceptions, looked at the debt charity’s clients’ experiences and showed how parents’ financial circumstances affects their childrens’ future relationship with money.
Just over a quarter (27 per cent) of CAP’s clients grew up in a household affected by debt and 58 per cent are over 40 years old.
The annual report says money worries are an intergenerational anxiety: “The impact debt has on these children is far reaching, from taking a toll on their emotional wellbeing, to parents being unable to provide adequate food or clothing and feeling that their debt was affecting their children’s future life chances. Where parents are struggling to provide for their children, feelings of guilt and shame are particularly acute. Seven in ten (69%) CAP clients with children said being in debt made them feel like a bad parent.”
Rachel Gregory, CAP’s social policy manager, told Premier Christian Radio’s News Hour: “Anecdotally, we’d heard clients telling us about this experience. For example, one lady shared with me once how her earliest memory was hiding behind the sofa from the enforcement agents knocking at the door. So, we definitely knew that there was a cycle here but actually to see the figures around the extent and how often that happens I think is surprising.”
She added that about 80 per cent of those…
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