Data

Financial difficulty dashboard

Our Consumer Insight Tracker data on household financial difficulty
2 min read
Consumer Insight Team

This dashboard displays data from our Consumer Insight Tracker, a monthly poll with around 2,000 UK adults per month, sampled and weighted to represent the UK population. 

Data on household financial difficulty has been collected monthly since April 2020. Our data is split into two key indicators of potential financial difficulty: missed payments and adjustments to cover essential spending. 

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Missed payments

Our missed payment measure looks at the proportion of households who told us they have missed an essential payment in the last month. The payment categories covered are:

  • Mortgage payments
  • Rent payments
  • Loan and credit card payments
  • Household bill payments (e.g. utility or telecommunications bills)

Proportions who have missed a loan/credit card or bill payment are taken from a base of the whole population, whilst the proportions of missed mortgage and rent payments are taken from the applicable groups, mortgage holders or renters. 

Download the underlying data for these charts below:

Overall missed payments

Missed payments by income

Missed payments by family type

Missed payments by housing tenure

Adjustments

Our adjustments measure looks at the proportion of households who told us they had made and adjustment to cover their essential spending in the last month. Adjustments covered are: 

  • Cutting back on essentials
  • Dipping into savings
  • Borrowing from friends or family
  • Using an overdraft
  • Taking out a short term loan
  • Taking out a new credit card or borrowing more using an existing one
  • Selling/pawning belongings

Download the underlying data for these charts below:

Overall adjustments

Adjustments by income

Adjustments by family type

Adjustments by housing tenure

Question text

Missed payments

Which of the following has your household done in the last month, related to the following payments? All payments made as normal, Used a payment holiday or payment plan to spread the payments across a longer period of time, Missed or defaulted on a payment, Other change to payment, Don't know and Not applicable.

Adjustments

For this question we are interested in your essential spending such as utility bills, housing costs, groceries, school supplies and medicines. Has your household made any of the following adjustments in the last month to cover essential spending?