The mental health of people who are newly reliant on benefits and financial support during the pandemic has worsened more than that of the wider population, according to the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen).
NatCen used data from Understanding Society’s COVID-19 survey, and identified six different financial experiences of the pandemic:
- Undisrupted – people whose finances were largely unaffected
- Beneficiaries – people whose finances improved
- Self-supporters – those who managed to cope with loss of income with little change to their lives
- Copers – people who used their savings to cover shortfalls
- Help-seekers – those who sought help from self-employment support schemes and Universal Credit
- Multi-strugglers – people who faced multiple financial struggles who took advantage of many different types of financial support
The research found that mental distress increased in all these groups, but the biggest increases were felt among the ‘help-seekers’.
- At the beginning of this year, 42% of ‘help-seekers’ reported poor mental health, an increase from 29% before the crisis.
- Multi-strugglers’ faced the highest levels of mental distress both before and during the crisis.
- People from Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds were twice as likely as White people to be ‘help-seekers’.
NatCen used data from over 12,000 people collected between April 2020 and January 2021 by our special Covid-19 Survey, which was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and The Health Foundation.
Dr Neil Smith, Head of Analysis at the National Centre for Social Research, said: “People faced with growing financial insecurity have been far harder hit than the financially secure. With the economic fallout of the pandemic expected to continue, the mental health of people relying on employment and benefits support during the crisis should not be ignored.”
Covid 19Health and wellbeing
