The Debt Advisory Centre said 35 per cent of those surveyed had been forced to take out a high interest short-term loan in the past 12 months to meet housing costs.

An additional 13 per cent also took out a payday loan to fund a one-off emergency such as boiler repairs, the survey found.

However, the most common use for a payday loan was to buy essentials such as food and travel.

In total some 3.5m people in the UK have taken out a payday loan in the last 12 months, representing 7 per cent of the population.

Men are more likely to take out a payday loan with 9% accessing such finance in the last year compared with 5 per cent of women.

There is also a bias towards younger borrowers with 17 per cent of 25-34 year olds admitting to having taken out a payday loan. This compares to 3.6 per cent of people aged 45-54.

Ian Williams, spokesman for the Debt Advisory Centre, said: “Many people who are struggling with money problems often put off tackling them – for example, believing that if they can just borrow some money to get through this month, then things will be better next month.

“However, for a great many people that simply isn’t true: if you have got to the stage where you need to borrow money to buy food or pay the rent, a loan isn’t the solution – it is time to seek expert help with you finances.”