When I speak to brokers, a common topic of conversation is the increase they are seeing in clients who have some form of adverse element in their credit history.

That was also the feedback we got when holding a Near Prime webinar with brokers at the tail-end of 2025, where a whopping 93% said they had seen a rise in clients with either adverse credit, or who would fail traditional credit scoring, over the previous 12 months.

Crucially this isn’t likely to be a one-off bump or a short-term fad with a clear end in sight. The majority of brokers we spoke to (76%) predicted that 2026 will see a further jump in client numbers with imperfect credit records.

Making better decisions

As an industry, it’s vital for us to understand what’s causing the issues that result in borrowers falling into the near prime category. Our previous research has highlighted that payment issues are often the result of life events or unexpected shifts in circumstance which can throw a spanner into the works, rather than poor financial discipline.

This is where cost of living challenges can really bite. Households make changes to their spending in order to cover those higher bills and get by, but when there’s a bill out of the blue – the need for a new boiler, for example – then the pressure can start to tell.

However, there have also been shifts in the availability of certain forms of credit which have played a part. When we polled brokers on their experiences as part of our inaugural Near Prime Index, it was notable how many pinpointed the growth of services like Klarna and the rising ‘buy now, pay later’ culture as having contributed to issues. With these forms of credit so easily available, it’s all too easy for a sudden life shift to lead to missed payments.

This has led to broker support for improved financial education from an early age, to ensure that future generations don’t fall foul of the same credit mistakes. Last year the Government announced financial education would become compulsory from primary school onwards as part of an overhaul of the national curriculum, a move which won support from the brokers attending our webinar.

Within this session, brokers were asked which areas should be included in financial education lessons, with almost a quarter calling for an overview of the different forms of credit, while a fifth wanted teachers to highlight the real cost of borrowing and how debt can build up over time.

Dealing with the here and now

Improving education for the next generation of borrowers is undoubtedly important, and has the potential to support those youngsters in making more informed decisions about money management as they move into adulthood.

But as well as focusing on the future, we also need to look at the present to meet the needs of the current crop of borrowers who are increasingly likely to have some sort of credit blip.

Again, education is crucial – one of the key findings from our Near Prime Index last year was the importance of brokers acting as educators, clearing up misconceptions about both the behaviours that can result in adverse credit, but also the options open to borrowers with those imperfect records.

We often hear of borrowers who are surprised they can even access a mortgage, particularly one at affordable rates, given their previous payment history. Friends and loved ones may have incorrectly suggested that prior missed payments would mean accessing an affordable mortgage would no longer be possible, but as an industry we need to break those myths and highlight the wider range of affordable options now available for near prime borrowers.

No longer a niche

The issues which pushed more borrowers into the near prime category have not gone anywhere. Indeed, cost of living pressures have been pronounced and stubborn, which may mean near prime begins to represent a more significant portion of a broker’s day-to-day business.

There may have been a time when near prime was viewed as something of a niche within the mortgage market, but that’s no longer the case. Now is the time to ensure brokers have a full range of options to present to clients with imperfect credit histories.

Richard Harrison is head of mortgages at Atom bank