More than half a million low earners have had to resort to borrowing money via credit cards, overdrafts and other sources to pay their rent during the past year, according to a survey by housing charity Shelter and YouGov.

英國住房慈善組織「棲身之所」和市調公司「輿觀」（YouGov）所做的一項調查顯示，去年逾50萬名低收入者必須以信用卡借款、銀行透支貸款和其他方式，才繳得出房租。

It has called on British government to commit to building 500,000 new "living rent homes", where the amount paid each month is capped at around a third of a lower-earning household’s income.

該組織請求英國政府致力建造50萬戶全新的「生活租賃房」，讓低收入家庭以收入約3分之1的價格租賃。

299,000 tenants had used an overdraft while 249,000 borrowed via a credit card. Almost 100,000 tenants used money from parents while 91,000 borrowed from other family members or friends to tide themselves over.

29萬9000名房客曾使用銀行透支貸款，24萬9000人曾以信用卡借錢。近10萬名房客曾用父母給的錢，還有9萬1000人向其他家人或朋友借錢，才能渡過難關。

Shelter said it believed the figures were conservative because some of those surveyed declined to disclose their income and were therefore excluded from this category.

該組織表示，相信這些數據僅是保守估計，因為部分調查對象拒絕透露收入，因此沒有被納入調查。

With rent swallowing up so much of their income, around 800,000 tenants on tight budgets were not even able to save £10 a month, according to the charity’s analysis of government data.

該組織分析政府數據指出，由於租金佔去大部分收入，約80萬名手頭吃緊的房客，一個月甚至存不到10英鎊（約400台幣）。

Source article: http://iservice.ltn.com.tw/Service/english/english.php?engno=1133279&day=2017-09-07