Overview

This edition of the Financial Impact Tracker looked at the changes in household spending and finances since the start of the pandemic.

There was an immediate shock to household finances from the middle of March 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated lockdown. This report looks at the situation in the second week of May, at a time when the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme had recently come into effect and the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme had just opened for applications.

It shows that the situation had stabilised – including the number of households either in serious financial difficulty (11%) or struggling to make ends meet (17%).