I disagree with the idea of people taking on more debt in order to tackle the affordability crisis (or in-work poverty). To me that seems to represent a poverty trap - and those lenders that make money off the interest paid by debtor’s get richer while debtors either remain poor or get poorer and this model doesn’t actually address the issues with income inequality or precarious employment which is becoming increasingly more common. Putting people further into debt just doesn’t address the issue of more workers experiencing downward mobility in income.
It seems to me that a better way to tackle the issue would be to pay people living wages. Living wages theoretically allow people to earn enough money to escape the poverty traps that generally cause them to be reliant on debt to meet their basic needs and proper living wages allow for them to afford what they need now as well as helping them to be prepared for shocks (like pandemics’s that cause people to have to stay home and not work).
It seems to me that a better way to tackle the issue would be to pay people living wages. Living wages theoretically allow people to earn enough money to escape the poverty traps that generally cause them to be reliant on debt to meet their basic needs and proper living wages allow for them to afford what they need now as well as helping them to be prepared for shocks (like pandemics’s that cause people to have to stay home and not work).