Brits’ wealth has seen a sharp decline in the first quarter of 2022 as the cost-of-living crisis takes its toll, according to the latest data from the LifeSearch Health, Wealth & Happiness 2022 Index. The Index - compiled by modelling a range of data sources covering health, wealth, and happiness and monitoring changes over time - shows that 2021’s combined annual index score was 84.4, a slight rise on 2020’s score of 81.5, but still 15% lower than 2019’s pre-pandemic score of 99.4.
When studied in isolation, the UK’s wealth score for 2021 was 93.0 - a rise of 11% on 2020 - but fell sharply to 86.7 at the start of 2022 as the surge in the cost of living took its toll. The annual Index – conceived by LifeSearch, built by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) and supported by ongoing consumer research – also found that a third (32%) of households feel financially worse off, rising to 40% among ethnic minority groups. This compares to just 24% of Brits who said they felt worse off 12 months earlier.
LifeSearch found that with inflation currently at 7%, a 30-year high, nearly three quarters of Brits (72%) expect to be worse off as a result of inflation. Of this group, more than half think they will be by at least £100 a month, one in 25 (4%) think they’ll be more than £1,000 a month down. On average, Brits think they will be worse off by £252 per month (£3,020 pa). Just 8% said they don’t think they’ll be worse off financially, the remaining 20% were not sure.
