Nearly 700,000 people in Scotland have problem debts or are at risk of having them, a Debt advisory charity StepChange Scotland report has warned.
StepChange Scotland which helped 30,000 people struggling with money issues last year, said council tax arrears were a problem for 46% of them. The charity said those they helped had on average £12.64 a month after paying housing, heating and council tax.
Problem debts were "primarily a symptom of poverty, poor housing conditions, welfare cuts, ill-health and insecure work", the report said.
Sharon Bell, head of StepChange Scotland, said, "The vast majority of StepChange clients are in problem debt due to circumstances they could not have prevented or planned for, such as unemployment, ill-health or reductions in income. We are seeing a record level of demand for help with problem debt with over a third of our clients having an additional vulnerability, such as illness."
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