Consumer Credit Law and the Protection of Low-income Consumers in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Since the mid -1980’s consumer credit has grown rapidly in most European countries. Consumer credit is of great importance in our lifestyle model of consumption. Consumer credit plays an important role in lifecycle budgeting, balancing saving, spending and income smoothing”. Consumer credit furthermore “permits the accumulation of capital assets”. However, one cannot deny that whether consumer credit is used for the accumulation of capital assets (such as housing), depreciating assets or expensive external services, low - income consumers are nevertheless the most vulnerable against the use of credit. This is because nearly two-thirds of low-income households have no savings and of those who do save, have insufficient money that precludes the need for borrowing

Keywords: Consumer Credit, Low-Income, Protection, United Kingdom

DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/118-03

Publication date: February 28^th 2022