Financial downside of lockdown confirmed
CONFIRMATION of the negative impact of lockdown on islanders’ income and spending has come from the latest report on the impact of the restrictions, which shows that over a third saw a reduction in income and more than half decreased their expenditure.
The figures are published in the third community survey carried out by the States’ data and analysis team, which looked at how the island was impacted by lockdown.
It comprises information gleaned from 3,699 people and follows reports on working, job-seeking and studying published in October and a preliminary report from August.
Participants included residents of Guernsey, Alderney and Sark.
While 38% of respondents saw a decrease in household income and 54% experienced a decrease in expenditure, this affected mostly those aged 65 and under, said the report.
And expenditure did not fall for as large a proportion of respondents from lower income brackets.
Those residents who were not born locally or in Jersey, the UK or Ireland and those with children aged 15 or under were the most likely to have seen a fall in their income.
More households including young people aged 15-19 reported a reduction in income than any other, with those aged 55 to 59 the next largest group – just under half reported a reduction.
Between about 38 and 42% of households with occupants aged between 20 and 64 reported a fall in their income.
The latest report said that the 55-59 age group contained a large proportion of respondents who were self-employed, which had been covered in the last survey report.
There was a noticeable difference in income between those born in the Bailiwick and those from other countries. More respondents from Latvia (78%) and Portugal (about 67%) reported a decrease in income compared with Guernsey respondents (about 38%).
However, 11% of Portuguese respondents saw an increase in household income, which was higher than any of the other categories – about 6% of Guernsey respondents reported an increase.
Concerning the Bailiwick alone, half of the respondents in Sark were more likely to show a reduction in income, compared with 38% in Guernsey and 35% from Alderney, although it is noted that there is a greater proportion of retired people in Alderney.
Expenditure was more likely to have risen for those with a physical disability or mental or emotional health condition compared with those without.
There was good news for local shops, however, with a lot of respondents (70-75%) saying they had ordered items from local supplies via phone, email or website, while 91% of those surveyed said they visited local shops during the latter stages of lockdown.
Just over half (53%) said they had switched suppliers for some or all of their shopping during lockdown, and while over a third (38%) had switched to using more local suppliers, just 14% had switched to using more suppliers from outside the island.
It was noted that women were more likely to have increased their use of local suppliers than men.
n Along with the community survey, the States has released the 2018-19 household expenditure survey and the 2018 household income survey, plus the fifth indicators of poverty report.
