This short bonus episode discusses the findings of the Financial Fairness Impact Tracker, a regular survey of household finances.

The latest edition of the tracker found that across the UK one-in-six of all households (4.4 million) are now in ‘serious financial difficulties’, compared to one-in-ten (2.8 million) in October 2021 – an additional 1.6 million households. 

Mubin speaks to Sharon Collard and Jamie Evans from the Personal Finance Research Centre at the University of Bristol, who carry out the regular analysis of the data, about the trends they are finding.

The tracker is based on a survey we’ve commissioned from YouGov, which examines the finances of nearly six thousand households.

Since the start of the pandemic, we have been working with a team of researchers at Bristol University to track household finances. We wanted to see how people were faring during the turbulent times, and to be able to make policy recommendations based on real-time evidence on what was happening. Something that really surprised us was that there wasn’t a steep decline in financial well-being during the pandemic. Clearly, some people were more affected, especially those excluded from government support, but others saw a boost to their finances. So overall, the numbers in financial difficulty did not significantly rise or fall over the past two years.

However, the latest iteration of the survey shows that things have now taken a sharp downturn. Here with me today are Sharon Collard and Jamie Evans from the Personal Finance Research Centre at the University of Bristol who analyse the results from the financial impact tracker.

Firstly Sharon, can you tell us what you found in the latest survey?

8. Bonus episode: Financial Fairness Tracker

Mubin speaks to Alison Garnham from Child Poverty Action Group about what can be done to reduce child poverty in the UK. They discuss how child poverty has been reduced in the past and how policy really can reduce child poverty.

The Trust has funded the following reports on child poverty:
Exploring the lived experiences of childcare for parents on Universal Credit
Financial stress and maternity leave
How to improve the system for people migrating from legacy benefits
Flexible affordable childcare solutions

24. How can we tackle child poverty?

The government has set out new measures to cut benefits and boost employment for disabled people. But will its strategy work? Tom Pollard, Head of Social Policy at the New Economics Foundation and a seasoned commentator joins us to discuss what is proposed and gives his view on whether the measures will be effective.

25. Are government reforms to disability benefits and support going to work?

How can we improve financial fairness in the UK? We fund research, campaigning and policy work to tackle financial problems in the UK.

8. Bonus episode: Financial Fairness Tracker

The Financial Fairness Podcast

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