For single mum-of-four Abi, the debts she has built up by using buy now, pay later (BNPL) services have left her trapped in a “vicious circle”.

Abi, from Sheffield, is one of a number of people who spoke to the BBC about the money they owe after using BNPL to purchase basic goods, including groceries and school uniforms.

Five leading debt support organisations say they are seeing a rise in the number of families needing help with the type of debt racked up through apps such as Klarna, Zilch and Clearpay.

About 1.6m people in the UK used these methods to spread the cost of their household bills this summer, according to research by debt charity Stepchange.

Buy now, pay later services say their products have safeguards to help customers manage their spending and they offer support for those who get into financial difficulty.

BNPL allows shoppers to spread the cost of purchases over weeks or months, using interest-free credit. But debts can mount if people miss payments.

From next year all BNPL apps will be regulated, leading to stricter affordability checks.

But in the meantime, debt advisors say people are using them “unsustainably” to “plug the gap” in their budgets.

Soft credit checks mean BNPL providers are often not told if people are borrowing from elsewhere – so they sanction loans without knowing a customer’s wider situation.

Abi started using BNPL when she hit tough financial times.

“There’s a temptation to go ‘oh I’ll just use that today and when I get paid, I’ll pay it off’ – and extend it over a few months,” says Abi, who is training to become a barber.

“Then you have to go back and live on it and then do it again.”

The 37-year-old, who cannot use credit cards because of other existing debts, began using BNPL three years ago to make larger purchases.

She now uses multiple BNPL apps to buy everyday items including pet food, bus passes and groceries – choosing which supermarkets to go to based on which she can get BNPL vouchers for.

Abi regularly buys a weekly travel pass, costing £40, using a BNPL card at the checkout.

She pays an initial fee of about £5 which allows her to spread the cost over several payments. Another fee is then applied if repayments are delayed.

Abi has faced additional fees and interest after deferring multiple repayments and now owes BNPL firms about £3,000.

Five leading debt advice groups say referrals related to BNPL debts are increasing.

Debt counselling service Money Wellness says it helped 44% more people with buy now pay later debts in the year ending in September 2025 than it did in the previous 12 months, which it describes as a “huge spike”.

The National Debtline and Business Adviceline, which are run by the Money Advice Trust, supported 11,000 people in the same period with debts of this kind.

Citizens Advice says it has seen a 48% year-on-year increase, and Christians Against Poverty says 14% of its clients had BNPL debts in 2024, up from 9% in 2023.

Tom Gibbons, from Money Wellness, says the rising cost of living has “pushed people’s budgets to the limit”.

Food prices have increased by 37% in five years, meaning a food shop costing £10 five years ago would now cost £13.70.

Mr Gibbons says Money Wellness is seeing more young single women with children seeking help with BNPL debts as they try to “plug the gap and can’t make ends meet”.

Abi has begun applying for a debt relief order, which would freeze her debts for 12 months. If her financial situation does not change, those debts may be written off, but her credit file will be affected for six years.

In August, a record monthly high of more than 4,200 debt relief orders were approved.

Jennifer, not her real name, owed £5,000 through BNPL before she was approved for a debt relief order in July.

The 26-year-old single parent from West Yorkshire says it has given her a “fresh start” and she no longer lives in fear of phone calls from debt collectors.

“I can finally breathe again,” she says.

She is one of many who told the BBC that accessing BNPL “was too easy”, adding: “You fall into a pattern, and before you know it, it’s a huge problem.”

But not everyone who uses BNPL has spiralling debts.

Danielle, a single mum of five and home care assistant from Rotherham, says she is “responsible with it” and only uses what she can afford to pay back.

Where she would once turn to a food bank or borrow money from family in the run up to payday, she now uses BNPL apps to buy essentials such as shoes and school uniforms for her children.

“I do know people who use it and worry about how they will pay it back, but I don’t want to end up paying money out to BNPL and then having nothing to live off,” says Danielle.

“In the past I’d be worrying and I’d be one of the last parents buying the bare minimum of what I could afford. Now as soon as they finish school I go out and buy all the uniform.”

Many people who spoke to the BBC never imagined they would find themselves in debt.

Mr Gibbons says: “All it takes is an accident and you’re off work, or made redundant and then all of a sudden you’ve got no money coming in and you’re still going to have find the money to pay BNPL.”

In response to the BBC investigation, a spokesperson for Klarna says the firm would welcome new regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) next year and its “products are designed to help consumers avoid getting trapped in debt”.

If payments are missed, access to further credit is then restricted, they say.

Zilch, which is a regulated FCA lender, says it has “affordability safeguards in place” to ensure its customers “are using our product responsibly”.

• Details of organisations offering help and support with debt are available via the BBC Action Line.

Rachel Reeves has suggested she favours removing limits on benefits linked to family size at this month’s Budget.

The chancellor told the BBC it was not right that children in bigger families were “penalised” through “no fault of their own”.

The comments are a sign she could remove the two-child limit on working-age benefits introduced under the Conservatives in 2017.

Some Labour MPs have been calling for a full reversal of the policy, amid reports she was considering paring back payments after two children instead.

In September, the Guardian reported that Treasury officials were considering a tapered approach, under which parents would receive most benefits for their first child and less for subsequent children.

Other options under consideration included limiting additional benefits to three or four children, the newspaper reported.

But speaking to Matt Chorley on BBC Radio 5 Live, Reeves suggested she did not want to see benefits limited according to family size.

“I don’t think that it’s right that a child is penalised because they are in a bigger family, through no fault of their own,” she added.

“And so we will take action on child poverty. The last Labour government proudly reduced child poverty, and we will reduce child poverty as well.”

She added there were “plenty of reasons why” parents who decided to have three or four children could see their financial circumstances change.

Elsewhere in her interview, she all but confirmed the government plans to break Labour’s manifesto pledge at last year’s general election not to raise income tax rates, VAT or National Insurance.

“It would of course be possible to stick with the manifesto commitments. But that would require things like deep cuts in capital spending,” she added.

“What I can promise now is I will always do what I think is right for our country. Not the politically easy choice, but the things that I think are necessary to put our country on the right path,” she added.

Labour’s 2024 election manifesto pledged not to raise the basic, higher, or additional rates of income tax, or National Insurance – prompting a row last autumn when Reeves announced a hike in the contributions paid by employers.

It also promised not to raise Value Added Tax (VAT), a sales tax, although the manifesto did not specify whether this applied to the rates, or which products are subject to the charge.

The chancellor has not ruled out continuing to freeze income tax thresholds beyond the 2028 date fixed by the last government, allowing more people to be dragged into higher bands as their wages rise over time.

Pressed on whether she could have avoided tax hikes through lower public spending, she said she was “not going to apologise” for increased funding for the NHS, adding that reducing waiting lists was one of her three Budget priorities.

She also claimed that some of the spending she unveiled at June’s spending review had been pencilled in, but not properly funded, by the Tories.

The two-child cap prevents households on universal or child tax credit from receiving payments for a third or subsequent child born after April 2017.

This is different to child benefit, which is paid to families where the highest-earning parent earns less than £80,000.

Separately, there is also an overall cap on the amount of benefits working-age families can claim, which has been in place since 2013.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank estimates fully reversing the two-child benefit cap could take 630,000 children out of absolute poverty, defined as households with an income below 60% median average, at a cost of £3.6bn a year.

Pressure to ditch the limit increased during the recent Labour deputy leadership contest, where successful candidate Lucy Powell and runner-up Bridget Phillipson both indicated they favoured more action on child poverty.

Reform UK is pledging to scrap the limit for working British couples if it wins power, although the Conservatives say the cap should remain in place, forcing a symbolic vote on the issue in the House of Commons in September.

Speaking after the vote, Tory leader said her party believes “those on welfare should have to make the same choices as those who aren’t,” and Labour and Reform were expecting working people to pay for “unlimited handouts”.