Hoping And Coping - How Families Were Faring In March 2023

27th April 2023

Families in the UK found themselves in the midst of a cost of living crisis over the winter.

Inflation has skyrocketed over the past year, with prices still over 10 per cent higher than a year ago. In response to the squeeze, the Government provided £47 billion of support to households in 2022-23, offsetting around three quarters of the rise in energy bills since 2021. However, this support was not enough and has meant that households have had to find ways to cope on their own.

Drawing on our second cost of living survey of over 10,000 individuals, this report, funded by the Health Foundation, examines what action people have taken in the face of rising prices, and shows how the crisis has affected living standards and health, looking specifically at the impact across different income and age groups.

Key findings
While some coping mechanisms have been widely used across all income and age groups - three-quarters (75 per cent) of adults reported cutting back on the amount they consume and almost half (44 per cent) of adults used their savings to make ends meet - there have been significant differences elsewhere.

The younger middle-aged (aged 35-44) were the most likely to turn to formal lending - such as credit cards, overdrafts or other formal loans – to make ends meet over the winter. Over one-in-three (37 per cent) have done this, significantly more than the population as a whole (26 per cent).

Young people (aged 18-24) and low-income families, on the other hand, were most likely to have coped with rising cost pressures by simply not paying at all: around one-in-five adults in the bottom income quintile (19 per cent) and those aged 18-24 (20 per cent) reported falling behind on at least one bill in the past three months.

Young people have also tended to look for help from their family and friends for help: one-in-four (25 per cent) 25-34-year-olds received financial help from these sources in the past year, compared to just 2 per cent among those aged 65 and above.

The ‘bank of mum and dad' played a critical role in supporting young people throughout the past year: 10.8 million 18-34-year-olds said they had received financial help from their parents.

For some – these coping mechanisms have not been enough to prevent real hardship, particularly among those with low-incomes.

Around 1.7 million (16 per cent) adults in low-income families ate less or skipped meals for seven days in the past month, while around 500,000 people (6 per cent) reported using a food or warm bank in the past four weeks.

The cost of living crisis has worsened people's physical and mental health too, a problem particularly concentrated among the young. Two-in-five (40 per cent) young people aged 25-34 said that their health had been negatively affected by the rising cost-of-living, compared to 30 per cent across all age groups.

Read the full report HERE
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