PERSONAL AND ECONOMIC WELL-BEING IN GREAT BRITAIN: JUNE 2020
While our day-to-day emotions like happiness and anxiety have improved since the beginning of lockdown, our assessment of life overall, such as our life satisfaction and feeling that the things we do are worthwhile, have remained subdued since 20 March 2020.
As average anxiety has fallen, the time we think it will take for things to return to normal has increased, with one in four of us expecting it will take over a year or will never go back to normal.
An estimated 12.5 million people say their households have been affected financially by the impacts of the coronavirus (COVID-19), a similar share to the beginning of lockdown. The share of employees and self-employed actively working fell in the first two weeks of lockdown and remained comparable up to 7 June 2020, at 67.0% and 79.9% respectively.
There are some signs of increasing economic inequality, with more people on lower personal incomes reporting reduced income in the household because of the coronavirus as lockdown has continued, working fewer hours, and being less able to save for the future, while fewer people with higher incomes have been impacted financially.
Parents and those who do not feel safe at home or people who are lonely were amongst the groups most likely to be impacted financially and to feel more anxious, with all less likely to be able to save in the year ahead.
Parents were more than twice as likely to report reduced income, less than half were able to cover a large necessary expense, and they were more likely to have been furloughed than adults without children in the house, with over 20% finding childcare impacting their work.
Since the easing of some restrictions, average life satisfaction worsened for those with a health condition before bouncing back to the level comparable with those without a health condition in the latest period up to 7 June.
For more information see: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/personal-and-economic-well-being-in-great-britain-april-to-may-2020?utm_source=165d8b81-3754-4df3-8b04-8164d366107c&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_content=immediate
GETTING TESTED – UPDATED GUIDANCE
The following groups of people can ask for a test through the NHS website:
The following groups of people can access priority testing through GOV.UK:
APPLY FOR THE FOOD CHARITIES GRANT FUND
Apply for a grant of up to £100,000 for your charity helping people affected by coronavirus (COVID-19).
If you run a front-line food aid charity in England, you can apply for a grant of up to £100,000 to help you continue to provide food to the vulnerable. You can apply for funding as a group of charities to meet the criteria for applications.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will assess applications to the fund in the order they are submitted.
REOPENING HIGH STREETS SAFELY FUND GUIDANCE
Guidance to help local authorities and partners to deliver activities supported through the Reopening High Streets Safely Fund.
The Reopening High Streets Safely Fund is providing £50 million from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to councils across England to support the safe reopening of high streets and other commercial areas. This guidance provides details of the activities that can be supported through the Fund and an overview of how it will be administered, as well as key ERDF contractual requirements.
