Credit crunch update
When we interviewed you last year the country was in the grip of the ‘credit crunch’ and was experiencing a recession.
With your help on Understanding Society we are uniquely placed to be able to see the effect the financial situation is having on people in all types of circumstances.
When asked how you were managing financially, about 27% of you said that you were “living comfortably” and 33% were “doing alright”. However, just over a quarter of you (28%) were “just about getting by” and around one in eight are finding things difficult.
Looking ahead, 19% of you thought that you would be financially better off in the coming year, with only slightly more people – 21% – saying that you would be worse off. Younger people tended to be more optimistic, with 39% expecting to become better off. The proportion of you who are optimistic decreases with age, so that only 4% of those aged 65 or older thought that they would be better off.
Comments
Credit Crunch
Posted by: Paul - about 2 years ago
In the last 12 months I have been expected to take on more work and responsibility. The company I work for has made a significant profit in the ression period, but we are expected to accept a less than infaltion level pay rise and people have been made redundant. Remind me why I am struggling!
credit crunch
Posted by: Gerard - almost 2 years ago
i believe that since i took part in the survey i am less optimistic about the future due to the fact that no person (except a chosen few)were aware of the gravity of the situation and i believe in the coming months the level of optimism will decrease with each revelation on the true state of the economy
Thank you
Posted by: Understanding Society - almost 2 years ago
Thank you for your comments. One of the advantages of a study like “Understanding Society” is that it is continuous – so we are talking to people throughout the year and so can see how the ‘mood’ changes at the national level. The other advantage is that it is a panel survey, so each year we return to talk to the same people and can hear their views on how things have changed – so we can look at individual-level change, which is not possible in standard “one-off” surveys.