July 19, 2006

British people are more eager to spend their hard-earned cash on short-term frivolities than on paying off the debt they owe on credit cards and other financial products.

According to research from IFA Promotion, over 30 million adults claim that they are not currently in a position to increase the amount they save every month.

But, rather than affordability or insufficient earnings, IFA Promotion claims that this is down to poor budgetary efforts.

The organisation reports that, if they received a 25 per cent increase in income, adults in the UK would rather spend the extra money instead of using it to pay off their debts or save for the future.

Some 63 per cent of UK adults would use their increased income to pay for a holiday, according to IFA Promotion, while 54 per cent would carry out home improvements and 46 would spend it on enhancing their wardrobe.

"Despite well-documented and countless warnings that as a nation, we are not saving enough, it seems that people are yet to adopt a sensible savings mantra," said David Elms, chief executive of IFA Promotion.

"People need to place clearing debt and saving much closer to the top of their list of financial priorities."

While the figures offered by the organisation may appear negative, they do show one improvement on last year, with over 12 million adults currently classifying themselves as "savers", with no borrowing, compared to 11 million in 2005.