A DEBT charity has said that improving households’ financial security should be top of the agenda for the government after revealing that one in eight people have borrowed money to make ends meet in the last year.

Two-fifths — 40 per cent — of the 2,000 people surveyed found it difficult to keep up with household bills and paying off credit debt, according to research published today by StepChange Debt Charity.

A quarter of people — 24 per cent — said they were rationing heating, electricity or water in an attempt to meet repayments.