New research from Fair4All Finance and Trajectory shows that although women make up 50% of the UK population, they account for 60% of people in financially vulnerable circumstances. That’s over 12 million women.
But what does that mean? For the 20.3m people in financially vulnerable circumstances in the UK there is a range of experiences and realities that impact their financial wellbeing. Whether that’s struggling to get out of debt, using savings to supplement their income or trying to juggle increases to the cost of living which for many mean they live with the reality of there being far more month than money.
Money and Mental Health have published worrying statistics about women’s experiences and mental burden when it comes to finances and credit – with almost 6 out of 10 finding they are burdened with paying for domestic bills
1 in 3 women in financially vulnerable circumstances have said that the increased cost of living has pushed their essential spending above that of their income, and they can’t make ends meet. 1 in 4 men said the same thing too – and the problems of a negative budget have been highlighted in detail by Citizens Advice.
50% of women in financially vulnerable circumstances hold less than £500 in savings – that’s around 6 million women
Women are being left behind when it comes to holding savings too. One in four women in financially vulnerable circumstances have no savings (26%), compared to one in five men (21%). As detailed in the graph below, men in financially vulnerable circumstances are more likely to hold higher savings pots, with 30% holding £2,500 or more, compared to 25% of women.
Holding savings can create an important safety net in times of need. Almost one in three women in financially vulnerable circumstances said they had relied on their savings over the past two years as income. Without these savings, people may need to turn to higher-cost and unaffordable credit or seek an informal loan from friends and family or an illegal money lender. It’s important that women hold other protection products, too, like insurance, but our latest research has found that 1 in 4 women in financially vulnerable circumstances (26%) hold none of the insurance products we asked about.
23% of women in financially vulnerable circumstances are struggling to repay the debt that they owe
67% of women in financially vulnerable circumstances are in some form of debt, around 8 million women, with the most common amounts of debt ranging between £2,000 to £10,000. Olivia is in a financially vulnerable situation, and fits best in our Difficult Debts segment:
‘Seeing the mortgage rates shook me up a bit especially as I have lived in the low-interest life. It’s made me realise I must get on top of my debt, I wake up in the middle of the night and think, how did we get here? I should have done better. I want to take control of my debt and have no more sleepless nights. We have been cutting down, using the car much less and walking more. When we go out with the children, we take lunch with us – eating out gets more expensive the bigger they get! We are very mindful of our credit card rates and keep an eye on them to make sure they are at 0%’
Almost a quarter (23%) of women in financially vulnerable circumstances are in our Difficult Debts customer segment. People in this customer group often have higher debt, are struggling to repay their debts, and increases in general costs are putting new pressure on them – something we’ve heard about from women in financially vulnerable circumstances often.
The debt that people in the Difficult Debts segments have on average is around £7,300, and worryingly, from 2022 – 2023 we saw a big jump in the number of people who had missed a repayment on a personal loan too (almost 4 in 10).
Fair4All Finance we’re working to transform the financial services sector and increase access to fair and affordable products and services for everyone. We’re working across the sector to trial new financial products that we think will make a big difference to people living in financially vulnerable circumstances and researching both the drivers behind financial exclusion and the solutions that work well elsewhere.
We know there’s lots that needs to be done and everyone across the sector has a role to play in driving financial inclusion. Our segmentation research provides organisations with opportunities to better understand and serve their customers through analysis of their financial needs, product ownership, behaviours and broader lifestyle factors.
It’s important that the unique needs of people in financially vulnerable circumstances are understood when creating new products and services.
Methodology:
Our latest research, conducted by Trajectory, surveyed over 3,000 people in financially vulnerable circumstances in January 2025.
