LV= Wealth and Wellbeing Research Programme, edition 12

Since June 2020, we have shared our quarterly insights, helping build industry understanding of the issues consumers are facing in regard to their finances and wellbeing. Our longitudinal data is the most optimistic we’ve seen since March 2022 and confirms the trend of a gradually improving picture. This appears consistent with the 0.1% growth in GDP in Q1 2023 announced by the ONS.

Our findings are based on a robust, nationally representative sample of 4,000 UK adults allowing us to have confidence that these reflect the views of UK consumers. We explore a variety of topics including people’s changing finances, their retirement regrets and how the rising cost of living is impacting them.

In this edition

Edition 12 focuses on how the current economic environment is changing consumer finances, opinions and behaviour. We found that millions of people are struggling to make ends meet, however the proportion of people who think their finances will improve over the next three months is rising.

We also revisited scams this quarter, as 39% of those with higher household incomes (100k+) say they have been targeted by pension scammers. Predictably, 54% are worried about pension scams and 49% wish they knew more about how to identify or prevent them.

Of those surveyed this quarter:

• 40% of UK adults (23m) think that their finances will worsen over the next three months
• One in ten retirees still had mortgage debt when they retired, with 63% using their pension to pay it off
• Only one in 10 UK adults say they understand the tax rules about bonds
• 67% of ISA investors were interested in a stocks and shares ISA with smoothing