Key findings at a glance
Borrowing to keep the lights on
More people applied for a loan to pay a utility bill than for any other reason in the first half of 2026. Utility bills accounted for 34.4% of all applications, ahead of emergency cash at 23.2%, home improvement at 16%, vehicle costs at 12.4% and debt consolidation at 9.3%. Special occasions such as weddings and holidays, the purpose most associated with borrowing in the public imagination, came last at 4.8%.
Put another way, for every application to fund a celebration, there were seven to keep the lights on.
The profile of the utility bill borrower challenges the assumption that short term credit is a product of worklessness. Among people applying to cover a utility bill, 69.7% were in full time employment and 83% were in work of some kind, whether full time, part time or self employed. A third (32.3%) have dependent children. Their median age is 34. These are working households whose pay is not stretching to the bill on the doormat.
The amounts tell the same story. The median utility bill application was for £500, and 42.7% of utility bill applications were for £300 or less. These are not lifestyle sums. They are the size of a quarterly energy bill.
The pressure was heaviest in the depths of winter. In January 2026, when the energy price cap stood at £1,758, utility bills accounted for 37.6% of all applications, the highest share of any month in the period. The share eased gradually as the weather warmed, falling to 31.8% by June, but never dropped below three in ten. And the pressure is set to return: on 1 July 2026, days after this analysis period closed, Ofgem raised the price cap by a further 13%.
The stacking generation
Behind the headline purpose data sits a quieter and arguably more important finding: the overwhelming majority of people applying for short term credit are already repaying credit.
76.3% of applicants declared existing loan repayments at the point of application, with a median commitment of £150 a month. One in four applicants (25.2%) already commits more than 10% of their monthly income to existing credit before any new borrowing, and 7.2% commit more than a fifth.
Crucially, this is not consolidation. Only 9.3% of applications stated debt consolidation as the purpose. The far larger group, 68% of all applicants, were already repaying credit and applying to borrow for something else entirely, most commonly a utility bill or an emergency. Borrowing is being layered on top of borrowing rather than restructured.
This pattern is not new, but it has not been measured at this scale recently. Credit industry analysis during the 2022 cost of living peak found a 70% rise in the use of short term loans to service other debts. The Barometer suggests that stacking has since become the default state of the short term credit applicant rather than a crisis symptom.
76.3% of applicants are already repaying other credit when they apply. Only 9.3% are applying to consolidate.
The boomerang borrowers
Almost a third of all applicants (29.5%) live with their parents. This is not a student phenomenon. The median age of an applicant living with their parents is 28, six in ten (61.6%) are 26 or older, four in ten (40.2%) are over 30 and more than a fifth (21.8%) are over 35. The large majority, 78.4%, are in full time work.
For context, the Office for National Statistics reports that 28.7% of all UK adults aged 20 to 34 lived with their parents in 2025, a figure that has risen steadily for a decade. The Barometer shows that the adults in this growing group are not insulated from financial pressure by living at home. Despite median declared housing costs of just £150 a month, they apply for short term credit at scale, and for the same reasons as everyone else: utility bills top their list too, at 34.9% of their applications.
Living with parents has historically been read as a way to save money. This data suggests that for a significant group it is not a springboard but a symptom, and that even adults with minimal housing costs are turning to credit to cover the basics.
29.5% of applicants live with their parents. Their median age is 28 and 78.4% work full time.
What applicants ask for
The shape of the average application is modest and consistent.
The median amount requested was £500 and the mean was £1,000, pulled up by a small share of larger requests. More than half of all applications (54%) were for £500 or less, and a third (34.6%) were for £300 or less. The most commonly requested single amounts were £500, £200 and £300.
The reason for borrowing shifts sharply with the amount. In the smallest band, £100 to £300, utility bills and emergency cash together account for seven in ten applications. As requests get larger, everyday essentials give way to bigger, less frequent purchases: in the £2,501 to £5,000 band, home improvement and vehicle costs make up more than half of all applications, while the utility bill share falls from 40% to 18%.
Repayment horizons are short. The most popular term was three months, chosen in 28.3% of applications, followed by six months (21%), twenty four months (20.8%) and twelve months (18.4%).
The typical applicant is in their mid-thirties: the median age is 34.8, and applicants aged 26 to 35 are the largest group at 36.7%, followed by 36 to 45 year olds at 28.9%. Applicants aged 18 to 25 make up just 14.2%.
Renters dominate. 55% of applicants rent their home, split between private tenants (41.4%) and council or housing association tenants (13.6%). A further 29.5% live with parents. Just 11.1% own their home. Homeowners, who hold most of Britain’s household wealth, are almost absent from the short term credit market.
Employment is the norm, not the exception. 70.8% of all applicants are in full time work and 83.7% are in some form of employment. The median declared net monthly income is £2,005, broadly in line with typical UK take home pay. Short term credit applicants are not an economic fringe. They look like the middle of the labour market.
The regional picture
Applications came from every region and nation of the UK. The North West generated the largest share at 13.7%, followed by London at 11.8%. But the most striking regional finding is what does not vary: the median amount requested was £500 in every single region. The size of the hole in the household budget is remarkably consistent from Aberdeen to Plymouth.
There is meaningful variation in what people borrow for. London, so often assumed to be insulated by higher wages, recorded the highest share of utility bill applications of any region at 37.1%, followed by the South West (36.1%) and the South East (35.7%). The North East recorded the lowest at 31.9%. Even at the bottom of the table, utility bills were the single most common reason to apply in all twelve regions.
| Region | Share of applications | Utility bill share | Median request |
|---|---|---|---|
| North West | 13.7% | 32.9% | £500 |
| London | 11.8% | 37.1% | £500 |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | 9.9% | 33.4% | £500 |
| West Midlands | 9.9% | 34.3% | £500 |
| East Midlands | 9.6% | 34.0% | £500 |
| South East | 9.5% | 35.7% | £500 |
| Scotland | 8.4% | 33.6% | £500 |
| East of England | 7.7% | 35.0% | £500 |
| South West | 7.2% | 36.1% | £500 |
| North East | 5.2% | 31.9% | £500 |
| Wales | 4.9% | 32.7% | £500 |
| Northern Ireland | 2.2% | 34.1% | £500 |
How the year moved
The six month view shows borrowing pressure shifting with the calendar rather than disappearing.
Utility bill applications peaked in January at 37.6% of the month’s applications and declined every single month as the weather warmed, reaching 31.8% in June. Emergency cash moved the other way, climbing quietly from 22.6% in January to 25% in June. And special occasion borrowing nearly doubled across the period, from 3.5% of January applications to 6.5% in June as wedding and holiday season arrived, though even at its June peak it remained the smallest category by a distance.
The overall picture is a population whose reasons for borrowing rotate with the seasons, but whose need to borrow does not.
| Purpose | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Utility bills | 37.6% | 34.9% | 34.7% | 33.5% | 32.7% | 31.8% |
| Emergency cash | 22.6% | 22.5% | 23.1% | 23.1% | 23.3% | 25.0% |
| Home improvement | 14.8% | 16.9% | 15.8% | 16.6% | 16.2% | 16.2% |
| Vehicle | 12.0% | 12.5% | 12.7% | 12.5% | 12.7% | 11.7% |
| Debt consolidation | 9.5% | 9.1% | 9.4% | 9.2% | 9.3% | 8.7% |
| Special occasion | 3.5% | 4.1% | 4.3% | 5.1% | 5.8% | 6.5% |
The stereotype of short term borrowing is someone funding a lifestyle they cannot afford. Our data shows the opposite. The typical applicant is a working adult in their thirties, renting or living with their parents, asking for £500 to cover a bill that used to fit inside a normal pay packet. When the single biggest reason for applying is a utility bill, and seven in ten of those applicants are in full time work, that is not a story about irresponsible borrowing. It is a story about the gap between wages and the cost of the basics.
A note on borrowing well
Short term credit is designed for genuine one off gaps, not for recurring essentials. If bills are consistently outrunning income, borrowing will bridge the gap once but widen it over time. Free and impartial help is available: MoneyHelper, the government backed guidance service, and StepChange, the UK’s largest debt advice charity, both offer confidential support with budgeting and problem debt. Anyone struggling with an energy bill specifically should contact their supplier first, as suppliers are required to offer support such as repayment plans.
Dot Dot Loans is a credit broker, not a lender. We do not lend money ourselves and we never charge consumers a fee for our service.
Methodology
The Dot Dot Loans Borrowing Barometer is based on analysis of 196,367 short term loan applications submitted through dotdotloans.co.uk between 1 January and 30 June 2026, made by 157,876 unique applicants.
Applications were deduplicated so that no applicant is counted more than once in any calendar month. Where the same person applied in more than one month, each month’s application is counted once, reflecting borrowing demand over time.
All loan purposes, income figures, outgoings and personal circumstances are as declared by applicants at the point of application. Loan purpose is recorded as a single selection from a fixed list of six options shown during the application, so the purpose categories are mutually exclusive and are not free text. Figures relating to income and existing credit commitments are drawn from the 96.5% of applications with complete and plausible financial declarations; records with missing or implausible values were excluded from those specific calculations. Regional analysis is based on applicant postcode mapped to the twelve statistical regions and nations of the UK, covering 99.9% of applications.
All figures are aggregated and anonymised. No individual applicant can be identified from any statistic in this report.
Two limitations should be noted. First, this dataset describes people who applied for short term credit through one UK broker. It is a large and geographically complete sample of short term credit demand, but it is not a representative sample of all UK adults, and no figure in this report should be read as a claim about the general population. Second, purposes and financial details are self reported by applicants and have not been independently verified.
Analysis conducted by Dot Dot Loans, July 2026.
Every aggregate table in this report, including the amount, purpose, regional and monthly breakdowns, as a single anonymised CSV. Free to use with attribution to Dot Dot Loans and a link to this page.
Sources
- Dot Dot Loans internal application data, 1 January to 30 June 2026. 196,367 applications, 157,876 unique applicants.
- Ofgem, Energy price cap will rise by 13% from July, 27 May 2026. www.ofgem.gov.uk/press-release/energy-price-cap-will-rise-13-july
- Ofgem, Changes to energy price cap between 1 July and 30 September 2026, 27 May 2026. www.ofgem.gov.uk/news/changes-energy-price-cap-between-1-july-and-30-september-2026
- House of Commons Library, Gas and electricity prices during the energy crisis and beyond, June 2026. commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9714/
- Office for National Statistics, Families and households in the UK: 2025, published 17 April 2026. www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/families/bulletins/familiesandhouseholds/2025
- LexisNexis Risk Solutions, Cost of living crisis drives increased financial insecurity, March 2023. risk.lexisnexis.co.uk/about-us/press-room/press-release/20230313-short-term-loan-applications-and-young-people-hit-hardest
Frequently asked questions
Every figure is drawn from real loan applications submitted through dotdotloans.co.uk between January and June 2026. Nothing is survey based or modelled. Full methodology is published above.
No, and we do not claim it is. It describes the 157,876 people who applied for short term credit through Dot Dot Loans in the period. It is one of the largest published samples of UK short term credit demand, but it reflects credit applicants, not the whole population.
Yes. All statistics in this report are free to use with attribution to Dot Dot Loans and a link to this page. The full aggregate data tables can be downloaded as a CSV in the methodology section above, and additional cuts of the data are available via press@dotdotloans.co.uk.
No. Dot Dot Loans is a credit broker authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. We help people compare short term and personal loans from a panel of lenders and brokers. We are not a lender and we never charge consumers a fee.