One in four will not recover financially from the pandemic for a year

A quarter of the country will have to survive another year of hardship before their finances recover from the pandemic, according to a new report.

The report by the charity Turn2Us warns people who have lost income and incurred debts since last March, when the lockdown first started, will need an average of 17 months to get their finances back to pre-pandemic levels.

The charity says that the time needed for people to recover is clear evidence that the government should not pull away support schemes too quickly and now has a clear moral obligation to make permanent the £20 uplift to Universal Credit.

People have seen their finances affected in a variety of ways; including one in five (19%) now struggling to pay bills, one in six (17%) struggling to afford food, and one in seven (15%) struggling to afford their rent or mortgage payments.

The severity and depth of these financial worries have had a clear and profound impact on the nation’s mental wellbeing; 62% of us state that our mental health has been affected at least a little bit, and a third of us (33%) say it has had significant consequences.

‘We have been inundated with demand for support over the last twelve months, giving millions of pounds in grants, and we see no sign of this slowing down any time soon,’ said charity chief executive, Thomas Lawson.

‘It will take us significant time to recover from the debt, loss of income and damage to mental health that so many of us have experienced in this pandemic, which is why it is so important that the government makes permanent the £20 uplift to Universal Credit and extends it to legacy benefits.’

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