10% of us cannot afford emergency spending of £100

Tuesday 15 October 2024

A sizable portion of the population are struggling financially with fresh research indicating that one in 10 could not find £100 for emergency spending.

The statistic comes from Island Global Research, and their latest community survey. It also found that 38% would struggle to regularly afford an extra £100 a month in bills, while 7% cannot afford their costs and often have to go without essentials like food and heating.

Pictured: Island Global Research's survey found that even if the majority of Islanders can afford an emergency £100 bill, many would struggle, and 1 in 10 would not be able to afford it at all. 

The research company sought to find out how residents of Guernsey, Jersey, the Isle of Man and Gibraltar are coping with the rising cost of living, and it leads to some sobering statistics.

86% of respondents from Guernsey felt that their household had been negatively affected by the cost of living crisis, with 56% saying they think the gulf in inequality, between the richest and poorest, will continue to grow. 

Half have found it difficult just meeting the cost of living over the last year, and more than half “are very concerned about poverty and inequality in living standards today”. 

The results also showed renters are struggling, with 41% of those people saying they are finding it difficult, also renting their place to live. The survey took in results from over 700 Guernsey residents, and over 2,500 across the four jurisdictions. Overall the four islands have similar results with concerns over creeping costs, inequality and concerns for the future being common across the different populations. 

IGR said:“We found that there continues to be a striking divide visible across the jurisdictions between those who categorise themselves as financially comfortable and those who struggle to afford their costs. 

“Just over half of people categorised themselves as less than comfortable, including 8% who say they cannot usually afford their [living] costs, and often have to go without essentials like food and heating.”

They go on to state that the amount of people saying they are struggling on the islands is a similar percentage to that in the UK, according to a recent YouGov poll, which found that ““six in ten Britons (61%) say they have made spending cuts at some point during the cost of living crisis”, a figure which IGR says “has stayed consistent throughout the crisis”.

They said that the figures and feelings expressed by the population “signals an adjustment to the new cost of living norms”.

The full figures for Guernsey can be found here, on the Island Global Research Website.