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More than 1.1 million adults are ending the year worse than they started it, data from Horizon Research suggests.
Among the groups most likely to say their finances had suffered during the year were business owners, single parents and people who were already low-income before the Covid-19 pandemic unfolded.
Overall, Horizon surveys suggested that 33 percent of adults felt their financial situation had worsened during the year, 50 percent said their position had not changed, and 16 percent felt better.
People in agriculture-dominated regions like Waikato, Otago, and Taranaki were more likely to say they were ending the year better than they started it.
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Horizon’s Graeme Colman said: “The pandemic has not declined evenly, with some reporting that their households are ending up in much better positions last year.”
STENT / KEVIN THINGS
Food banks provided sustenance at record numbers in 2020. Here, Te Whakapono Waitui packs bags at a food bank run by Kokiri Marae in Wainuiomata in the lead up to Christmas.
The results were based on surveys that covered just under 1,600 adults across the country.
There was a particularly high proportion of people ages 35 to 44 who had seen their finances deteriorate during the year, Colman said.
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More than a million adults are ending the year worse than they started it, Horizon Research data suggests.
“43 percent of 35- to 44-year-olds feel their homes are worse off, the highest of any age group,” Colman said.
This was a group that included many people with children, he said.
People living in extended families were also much more likely to say they had suffered financially in 2020, he said.
“About 46 percent of those types of households say they are worse off, compared to 33 percent overall,” Colman said.
Similarly, 41 percent of people in single-parent households with three or more children felt worse, along with 40 percent of single-parent households with one or two children in the household, Horizon found.
Single-parent families were also much more likely to have problems with 40% of single-parent households with one or two children at home saying their finances had worsened by 2020.
Colman said Horizon’s findings were in line with reports about how difficult the pandemic had been in some types of households, noting that it had led to some calls for profits to be raised even further.
Despite a drop in interest on bank deposits, the group least likely to report being worse off were people 65 and older, Coleman said.
And even though house prices have risen, raising questions about a rise in intergenerational inequality, Horizon found that 25- to 34-year-olds were the age group most likely to feel better than they were. beginning of the year.
Colman said 25 percent felt their finances had improved during the year, compared to the national average of 16 percent.
The survey did not ask if the respondents owned their own homes.
By occupation, employers were more likely than average to feel that their households were worse off financially.
Coleman said, “43 percent of business managers and executives feel they are worse off.”
Many top executives accepted pay cuts during 2020.
But Coleman said: “26 percent of farm owners and managers say they are worse off, while 39 percent say they are better, the highest result for any occupation group.”
The regions with the highest proportion of adults who felt they had worsened during the year were the west coast of the South Island, where 53 percent of people surveyed said their homes were worse, and Canterbury, where 44 percent were felt worse.
Canterbury Employers Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Leeann Watson said she was surprised to hear those numbers when it came to business owners.
He said that the economic recovery of the region after Covid-19, compared to the rest of the country, was slightly above average.
“From a general business point of view, I would describe business sentiment as quite positive. Businesses in general are cautiously optimistic. “
He said there had been a strong recovery, but companies were still well aware that they hadn’t been through Covid yet.
“We have to see what happens in the next two quarters.”
