Families' financial struggles at highest levels since pandemic began

The number of families with children at home who are struggling to pay their bills during lockdown has leapt to its highest level since the pandemic began.

Families are struggling more now than at any point in the pandemic.

According to comparethemarket.com’s Household Financial Confidence Tracker, 30 per cent of parents with children at home found it difficult to meet their financial obligations over the past seven days. This represents a seven percentage point rise from last week and the highest level recorded since the Tracker began ten weeks ago.

The proportion of families with children at home who say they are not confident that they will be able to make ends meet over the coming weeks jumped to 27 per cent, up from 23 per cent last week.

Nearly four in ten households feel their finances have suffered since the beginning of lockdown and, among this group, respondents said that it would take an average of nine months to get back on track financially.

Anna McEntee, product director at comparethemarket.com, said: “The lockdown has had a profound impact on society and has clearly altered the shape of our personal finances. Many household budgets will be changed dramatically for the long term, with many people forced to make financial sacrifices and adapt how they spend.

“Households expect it to take the best part of a year before their finances return to how they were before lockdown. As the furlough scheme is slowly wound down, businesses will come under further financial pressure which could have a knock on effect on their employees. Even though this phase of lockdown is coming to a close, the second half of 2020 promises to be a real challenge for many people.”