Anvar Sarygulov

June 2021

As the Covid-19 pandemic hit the UK in March 2020, the Government made an unprecedented intervention to support the incomes of households through increases in various working-age benefits and provision of job retention income support.

This analysis focuses in particular on the financial impact of the pandemic on existing and new Universal Credit claimants relative to the rest of the public. We examine several objective measurements of financial security such as debt levels and households bills, as well as more subjective measures.