Financial wellbeing in March 2026

Summary

• Consumer confidence in the future UK economy fell by 13 points in the month to March 13th to -56, the lowest level in over three years.
• Consumer confidence in their future household financial situation fell by five points. The majority of consumers thinking their situation will get worse pointed to price rises and continuous cost of living pressures as the drivers of their pessimism. 
• Whilst both of our financial difficulty measures - the proportion of UK households who reported missing a housing, bill, loan or credit card payment and the proportion of households making at least one adjustment to cover essential spending - decreased this month, looking at the past three-month moving averages shows that financial difficulty is on the rise, returning to levels seen through most of 2024 and 2025.

You can view more data and articles from our monthly tracker survey on our dedicated Consumer Insight Tracker page.

Consumer confidence in the future UK economy hits the lowest level in over three years

Consumer confidence in the future UK economy fell by 13 points in the month to March 13th to -55, the lowest level since the end of 2022. This score of -56 reflects that only 12% of UK adults think the UK economy will improve over the next 12 months and two thirds (67%) think it will worsen. Whilst not yet reaching the depths of consumer confidence seen at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic (-78 in April 2020) and during the cost of living crisis (-70 in June 2022), this score of -56 shows the deep pessimism in the UK economy. 

Although consumers are nowhere near as pessimistic about their own future household financial situation, this month saw a five point fall to -15, the lowest level since April last year (35% think it will worsen, 20% think it will improve and 39% think it will stay the same).

Consumer confidence in the future falls

This month we asked respondents why they think their future household situation will improve or worsen. Of those who think their financial situation will worsen, the vast majority (75%) mentioned the cost of living in their response, talking about prices and bills continuing to rise. 

“The cost of living is going up day by day and [there are] no positive signs of anything coming down in price.” Male, 65+, North East

“Because the price of food, fuel and utilities has increased massively and will continue to do so, but wages do not keep up.” Female, 35-44, West Midlands

Many respondents talked about the cost of living generally, but some explicitly tied their concern about the cost of living and their future household financial situation to the conflict in the Middle East and the impact they expect it to have on prices.

“Because the price of fuel will rise due to the war and that will have a knock on effect on lots of things” Male, 65+, Yorkshire & Humberside

“The effects of the war in Iran and around will be felt in every part of the economy because of the rise in fuel costs. I expect this to take a much greater percentage of my income to maintain the status quo”. Female, 65+, Yorkshire & Humberside

Financial difficulty increases to late-2024 and 2025 levels

In the final few months of 2025 we saw a fall in financial difficulty, after levels of missed payments and financial adjustments had been fairly static for the previous 18 months. Bucking this trend, last month we observed a dramatic rise in both our financial difficulty metrics. The proportion of households reporting they missed a household payment reached 8% in the month to February 12th. 

More recently in the month to March 13th, the proportion of UK households who reported missing a housing, bill, loan or credit card payment was 6.6%, down 1.4 percentage points. Whilst this is an improvement compared to last month, if we look at the three-month moving average we see that the missed payment rate is on the rise, returning to levels seen throughout most of 2025 and some of 2024. The average for the last three months of 6.8% is lower than levels at the height of the cost of living crisis (7.5% to 8.5%), but this remains higher than before the cost of living crisis started and its upwards trajectory is a worrying sign for the year ahead. 

Missed payments has increased in recent months

The proportion of households making at least one adjustment to cover essential spending fell to 49% in the month to March 13th, down from 55% last month. Adjustments include cutting back on essentials, dipping into savings, selling possessions or borrowing. Similarly to missed payments, whilst this is a decrease compared to last month, looking at the past three-month moving average shows that the number of households making adjustments has increased over the last few months. 

Half of all UK households are making at least one adjustment to cover essential spending

Throughout the height of the cost-of-living crisis cutting back on essentials was the most commonly reported adjustment. At its peak, 44% of households reported doing so in September 2022. This fell significantly throughout the subsequent years and the past three-month moving average shows that cutting back on essentials is fairly static at a level (25%) that we saw at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In contrast, the proportion of households reporting dipping into savings grew at a lower rate during the cost-of-living crisis but has remained persistently high. The past three-month moving average sits at 26%, similar to levels throughout 2022 and 2023. Recent research shows that a quarter of households have £200 or less in savings, while 16% have no safety net at all. This persistent reliance on savings is a worrying sign, indicating that the most financially strained homes may see their remaining buffers evaporate if living costs rise further.

Summary

After a positive end to the end of 2025 indicating that financial difficulty was falling, the last couple of months has shown that cost of living pressures remain strongly felt by many households. Many households are dipping into savings or missing important household payments entirely. With the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, deep consumer pessimism in the future UK economy and many expecting price rises to continue, financial difficulty could remain relatively high or even increase in the coming months. 

Methodology

Fieldwork for Which? 's Consumer Insight Tracker is conducted monthly by Yonder on behalf of Which?. The latest wave of data collection took place between 13th to 15th of March.  A sample of 2,085 UK adults were surveyed online and weighted to be nationally representative.