The health crisis of COVID-19 has turned into an economic crisis and those who think their finances have worsened report larger drops in income than the rise in income for those whose finances improved. This financial stress appears to be one of the factors that is predicting changes in relationship quality during the COVID-19 period.
Nearly third of people (32%) think their finances have worsened since the spread of COVID-19 with per person tax income down $125.00 a week.
Income was down $39.00 a week for those who thought their finances improved, and down by $40.00 for those who reported their finances as staying the same.
Those aged 18-24 and 55-64 have the highest percentage (around 36%) saying their finances worsened when asked in May 2020
Those who say their finances worsened were twice as likely to say their relationship worsened than those whose finances were stable or improved.
More than twice as many Australians reported that their finances have worsened than those who say their finances improved since the spread of COVID-19. 32 per cent say finances have dropped, with per person after tax income declining by $125 a week.
Interestingly, those who said their finances improved had an income fall of $39.30 a week, while those who said finances stayed the same suffered a slightly larger drop in income of $40.10.
There was variation across the age groups. Those aged 18-24 and those aged 55-64 had similar percentages of people saying their finances had worsened (37 per cent and 36 per cent respectively). Both groups also had low numbers ( 9 per cent)saying finances had improved.
Older age groups (65-74 and 75+) had lower numbers saying finances were worse (26 per cent and 20 per cent) with ten and twelve per cent respectively saying things had improved.
There was a strong relationship between changes in relationship quality and changes in finances. Those who reported their finances had improved are significantly more likely to report their relationship was better. 36% said this while 26% per cent of those whose finances stayed the same reported the relationship improvement and 29 per cent of those whose finances were worse.
When it comes to relationships worsening, this while almost twice as likely for those whose finances had also worsened than those who didn’t suffer a decline in finances. A quarter of those whose finances were worse said their relationships were also worse. This was the case for only 14 per cent of those whose finances were stable and 14 per cent for those whose finances had improved.