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Across the UK, millions of households are using credit to paper over ever deeper budget cracks. Rent, energy, food — when incomes fall short and safety nets fail, credit is often all people have to cover the essentials.
Yet for too many people, what is meant as a short‑term coping strategy becomes mounting harm, with sustained pressure, debt problems, and worsening physical and mental health.
When credit markets ignore the context behind credit use, reward harmful practices, and shift risk onto those least able to bear it, debt becomes a structural problem—one that entrenches inequality rather than relieving it.
The consequences ripple far beyond individual households, weakening productivity, holding back growth, and placing growing strain on public services.
Our history and mission
The Centre for Responsible Credit (CfRC) exists to change credit for good and improve the support and solutions available to people with debt problems. Since our founding in 2010 we have shaped systems innovation and influenced major policy reform.
We have driven successful campaigns to establish total cost of credit caps on payday lenders (2015) and rent-to-own stores (2019); convened the We Are Debt Advisers (WADA) network to prevent £16 million of cuts to community-based services (2022); and pioneered three major financial support pilots Financial Shield, FlexMyRent, and Breakthrough to test new approaches and deliver financial, health and justice benefits to individuals and local councils (2020 to present).
Following the strengthening of our Board in 2025, we have sharpened our focus around a clear set of principles and priorities. These are practical commitments that shape how we work, the reforms we pursue, and the partnerships we seek to build.
They reflect our conviction that debt must be tackled as a systemic issue—and that responsibility must sit with markets and the state, not only with households under pressure.
Key principles
Our principles set out how we believe credit should function in a fair society—and how we seek to influence the systems, incentives, and institutions that shape credit and debt outcomes in practice.
We believe that credit should work for people, not against them. This means:
Credit should enable people to live stable, healthy lives
‘Credit for good’ means providing credit in ways that help households reduce overall living costs; supporting households to navigate periods of disruption; and building financial resilience, not adding to insecurity.
Lived experience at the centre
Those most affected by financial hardship help shape our research, and the solutions we champion. We are guided by people with experience of the frontline of problem debt, and by principles of fairness, respect and human dignity.
Reshaping how credit markets work
Market practice that generates financial strain needs to be called out, whether through design, incentives, or irresponsible and exploitative behaviour. Conversely, good practice needs to be supported. We combine research and advocacy to make the case for system reform and greater investment.
Developing alternative support
People should have lower cost tools to manage the cost of essentials. We support approaches that provide access to a sustainable, low carbon future, and for those who need it, to a genuine fresh start.
Why Our Work Matters
Improving how credit and debt systems work is central to how we tackle poverty and inequality—but it is also critical to the effectiveness of public services, welfare sustainability, and wider public health outcomes.
When credit is used to compensate for gaps in income and support, failures in credit markets quickly become failures of the state, with long‑term costs for individuals, communities, and the economy.
Priorities for Change
Reflecting on our principles, we have identified four priority areas for the period ahead. We invite you to engage with us as we move forward with these, to help shape a fairer, more responsible credit system:
1 Driving systemic reform to UK credit reporting and information
Building on our Good Score, Empty Cupboard report, we are calling for the transformation of credit reporting at a time when automated decision‑making and data‑driven risk assessment are increasingly shaping access to credit and essential services. Systems need to make borrower context and lender behaviour visible – as key context for missed payments, and to prevent lender misconduct from unfairly tarring borrower reputation. To take forward this priority, we are seeking partnerships with lenders, credit reference agencies, and fintech platforms to design fairer alternatives.
2 Promoting environmental responsibility through purpose‑driven lending
With energy costs high and the urgent need to transition to Net Zero, there is a growing need to examine how the design of credit products could play a positive role in helping low‑ to middle‑income households reduce both their carbon footprints and their living costs. Our recent blog explores this in relation to supporting electric vehicle ownership, including how to ensure affordability and fairness. We want to continue to explore this issue with partners, on how similar principles could apply in other areas. This could include improving the energy efficiency of homes, supporting low‑carbon heating and retrofit, and reducing the up front costs that currently prevent many households from lowering bills and emissions.
3 Strengthening the case for integrated debt, welfare, health and housing support
Access to high‑quality debt advice is essential, but too often individuals fall through the gaps trying to navigate complex, fragmented systems. We continue to support the WADA network of frontline debt advisers to influence the Government’s proposed insolvency reforms, and MAPS’s 2028/29 debt advice strategy – to ensure people receive timely, high‑quality advice and support to access the benefits they are entitled to. Alongside this, we plan to deepen our work with local authorities, health partners, and community organisations to develop models that bring debt, welfare and wider public services together to expand access, reduce friction, and improve health and wellbeing outcomes.
4 Tackling the cycle of welfare, debt, and high credit costs
When the benefits system creates harm though insufficiency, delays, or being withdrawn, it rapidly results in missed credit payments, arrears, and problem debt. These financial distress markers are then fed into risk‑based pricing systems, locking people into a cycle of higher costs, deeper insecurity, and worsening health outcomes. We want to build on work with policymakers, health advocates, and social lenders to address these systemic failures. Our focus is on strengthening welfare provision—particularly for people with health conditions and disabilities – to reduce avoidable defaults, strengthen social protection, lower credit costs; and to prevent debt‑related harm from being repeatedly priced into the lives of those least able to bear it.
Work with us to change credit for good
The challenges we face cannot be solved by any one organisation or sector alone. If you share our commitment to tackling the root causes of debt and financial insecurity—and to reshaping credit and support systems so they work for people rather than against them—we would welcome the conversation.
We are particularly keen to engage with policymakers, funders, lenders, local authorities, health partners, and practitioners who want to:
Transform how credit reporting operates, and improve borrower protections.
Develop and test practical ways for how credit can reduce living costs and carbon emissions.
Strengthen integrated support systems around debt, welfare and health.
Address the ways welfare failure and income security are driving defaults and higher credit costs.
If you are interested in partnering with us, exploring how these priorities align with your own objectives, or wider collaboration, we would be delighted to talk. You can get in touch today by contacting our Chief Executive, Damon Gibbons at damon.gibbons@responsible-credit.org.uk
