I realise some people are in a really tough place, but if someone can afford the extra expense of paying off the loan, from their current income, then they could have afforded the expense of saving the same amount.

Unless their income literally increased by the amount of the loan cost, just before the additional expense hit them, the situation was avoidable. The fact is a lot of people on low incomes do not see any benefit from savings and don’t prioritise it.

That might be for rational reasons, their life circumstances are different from mine, but I don’t understand the logic. A branch of my family are significantly less wealthy than mine. When my uncle, the main breadwinner retired, his sons blew a big chunk of the retirement lump sum on luxury holidays for their families, of the sort my branch of the family would never consider. I think one of them has a mortgage and the others rent. It’s just bizzare. So many decisions they make in their lives seem actively self harming, but they do have jobs and support their families. They’re by no means destitute, but seem to actively avoid choices that could improve their lives. There’s something going on and I don’t know what it is. Maybe a lack of hope, leading to living in the moment? I don’t know.