Since March 2022, the People’s Panel has been consistently measuring how respondents are managing with bills and credit commitments.
Respondents are asked to chose the option that best describes their household from the following list:
- Keeping up with bills / credit commitments without any difficulties
- Keeping up with bills / credit commitments, but it is a struggle from time to time
- Keeping up with bills / credit commitments, but it is a constant struggle
- Falling behind with some bills / credit commitments
- Having real financial problems, have fallen behind with many bills / credit commitments
- Don’t have any bills / credit commitments
Responses have been grouped to form 3 key measures:
- Those who are keeping up without any difficulties – shown in green
- Those who are keeping up but struggling from time to time – shown in orange
- Those who are finding it a constant struggle, are falling behind, or having real financial difficulty – shown in red
The chart below show the time series data for these measures.The chart also shows (as a dotted line) the trend line for each measure over the reporting period – to give an indication of direction of travel.
Download the data for these charts here
This question is asked in every People’s Panel survey, and the data and chart will be updated after the results of each Panel survey have been analysed.
We undertake a People’s Panel survey in January every year that looks at residents’ finances in more detail – including, amongst other things, whether they save often, have debt, if they are worried / concerned about their financial situation, if they have made cuts over the last year, and what they would do in a financial emergency where they needed £500 suddenly.
View the latest report of this survey here
