According to think tank New Policy Institute, coronavirus lockdown has actually made many people richer, because it drastically cut spending.
The cost of leisure activities (sports, holidays, dining out, going to the pub etc) and commuting have all been slashed because people can no longer access them.
Based on their analysis, the richest households saved £4,181 during this time while the poorest households saved £636.
Everybody wins right?
Actually, there are big limitations to their analysis.
Their estimates don’t apply to households that have seen a fall in income due to furlough, redundancy or pay cuts.
At the moment, 8.7 million people are on furlough and upwards of 2.3 million people have applied for Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS). There are no figures for people who have taken a pay cut. And let’s not forget those who can’t get any financial support from the government.
And because it’s an analysis of data from 2018/2019, it doesn’t factor in the unexpected additional spending people are now facing, such as setting up home offices and additional utilities costs.
Or indeed, the people who lost out to the coronavirus scams I wrote about last week.
