Financial situation during Covid-19 outbreak

24 Mar 2020

Q. Which of the following best describes your financial situation during the Covid-19 outbreak?

		Gender			Age Group			Location
	Total	Male	Female	18-34		35-54	55+	Capital	Non-Capital
I do not expect the Covid-19 will impact my income	24%	22%	26%	16%		18%	37%	22%	28%
I have sufficient savings to deal with a short-term loss of income	26%	29%	22%	19%		26%	31%	28%	21%
I will struggle with a short-term loss of income, but will get by	29%	30%	28%	40%		28%	20%	31%	26%
I will be in serious financial stress with short-term loss of income	21%	18%	24%	25%		28%	11%	19%	25%
Base (n)	1,034	519	515	342		327	365	703	331

One in five people expect to be in serious financial stress due to a loss of income (21%), a further 29% say they will struggle.
Women (24%), those aged 18-34 (25%) or 35-54 (28%) and those living in non-capital areas (25%) are most likely to be in serious financial stress.
Around half people say they either have sufficient savings to manage a loss of income (26%) or will not suffer a loss of income as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak (24%).
Those aged over 55 are more likely to be in a strong financial position, with 37% not expecting their income to be impacted and 31% having sufficient savings to manage a short-term loss of income.

		Household			Employment
	Total	Have dependent children	Do not have dependent children	In paid employment		Not in paid employment	Retired
I do not expect the Covid-19 will impact my income	24%	18%	28%	12%		31%	41%
I have sufficient savings to deal with a short-term loss of income	26%	23%	27%	27%		14%	36%
I will struggle with a short-term loss of income, but will get by	29%	32%	27%	37%		25%	17%
I will be in serious financial stress with short-term loss of income	21%	26%	18%	23%		30%	7%
Base (n)	1,034	372	662	519		255	228

A quarter of families with dependent children in the household expect to be in serious financial stress with a short-term loss of income.

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