The Credit Counts survey, part of the Adult Financial Wellbeing Survey 2021, looked at the number of adults who often use a credit card, overdraft or borrow money to buy food and other essentials or pay bills because they’ve run short of money. It showed that while the number of people relying on this was higher in individuals on low incomes, there were also differences between age groups, ethnicity and whether the individual was responsible for children, among other things.