ONS-Assessment of households wellbeing.

Households in the UK have grown more pessimistic about their own personal finances. And the state of the economy, according to new official figures.

The office of National Statistics (ONS)  has, for the first time, produced an assessment of personal and economic wellbeing data.

The benefits from the part of the economy that was performing strongly were not being felt by all, according to the results.

 Main points released by the ONS: – Households.

This is the first time the ONS has brought together its data on both personal and economic well-being. To give a fuller picture of the well-being of UK households.

In the latest quarter, economic indicators such as income and spending continue to increase. However, longer term, there is a slowdown of household conditions. Also seen in a levelling off of people’s personal well-being and people’s perception of the future has been worsening.

In Quarter 3 (July to Sept) 2018, there was an increase in real household disposable income per head. Up 0.7% compared with a year ago, alongside similar rises in earnings, employment and household spending and improved anxiety ratings.

Since the end of 2017, improvements have levelled off in average happiness, life satisfaction and worthwhile ratings. Similar to recent trends in net household financial wealth and household disposable income per head.

Since Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2013, household debt per head has been increasing. And is now 133% of disposable income. Combined with spending per person outgrowing disposable income by £119 since Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2016, it supports previous analysis suggesting that some households may be living beyond their means.

People perceive the economy and their personal financial situation will worsen over the next 12 months, continuing more pessimistic views seen since the beginning of 2018.

These trends may not necessarily be equally distributed across different parts of society.  For example, between 2011 and 2016 financial years, average income for the bottom 20% of households increased by 4.8% or £589 while for the top 20% it increased by 6.7% or £4,123.

Dashboard of well-being indicators

You can read the full report here.

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