THE grim toll of Covid on household finances is laid bare in new figures from Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS).

The charity found one third of us have taken a financial hit since lockdown first hit.

Almost half of Scots have run out of funds before payday since restrictions began, and nearly 20% of this group had no financial difficulties before this.

Only 5% of those who did have money trouble before March have seen their circumstances improve.

The picture is revealed as CAS launches its new online Money Map tool to help those whose finances have been affected by the coronavirus crisis.

Found at www.moneymap.scot, it will be available from 10am and brings together all the options for how people can improve their incomes and cut their living costs through issues such as housing, benefits and energy bills and directs them to online sites where they can access these options.

The charity’s Myles Fitt said: “The coronavirus pandemic has meant a period of huge economic uncertainty for people across the country.

“Restrictions have been essential to defeat the virus, and frankly these figures would be even worse without a range of responses from policy makers like furlough, financial protections, payment breaks, and increased use of the Scottish Welfare Fund and Council Tax reduction.

“Ultimately though, almost half of people have run out of money before payday since restrictions began, with nearly one in three of those people seeing their finances worsen during this time.

“Given how many people were on a financial verge before the virus struck, living from payday to payday and just making enough to cover essential bills, there’s a real risk Covid will push substantial amounts of people into debt and destitution.

“While we would always encourage policymakers to go further in providing financial support policies, it’s vital that people recognise they have rights and entitlements now to help them get that extra bit of money that could make all the difference. Our Money Map helps people do that.”

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The development comes one month before Christmas and in the week of Black Friday, the retailer discount day that’s been imported by UK outlets in recent years and has become a big-money day for participating firms.

Nationwide Building Society – the biggest operator of its kind in the UK – has revised its Black Friday predictions as consumers await until shops re-open due to a second lockdown in some areas.

Using current debit card spending data to predict consumer behaviour, Nationwide – which fully merged its Dunfermline Building Society arm in 2014 – expects its members to make more than 6.5 million transactions worth a total of £224m, but this is a 20% drop on previous predictions of almost 8 million purchases and is also down on last year’s £247m.

Mark Nalder, head of payments at Nationwide, said: “Tighter restrictions mean people are being understandably cautious and many, particularly those who enjoy getting to the shops and stores, will likely wait until stores are back open again before making their big pre-Christmas purchases, meaning we expect the number of transactions to drop by up to 20% on what we had previously forecast.”