IPA Touchpoints: women and young people more affected by cost-of-living squeeze

The number of adults “coping” on their current salary has fallen to below two-thirds this year compared to pre-lockdown in 2020, new data shows.

According to the latest IPA TouchPoints 2022 research, this figure dropped by 6% from 67.4% before the first lockdown to 63.7% at the beginning of this year.

The decrease is more marked for women and young people, with 7.8% and 9.5% fewer respectively in those groups saying they are “coping with their current income” between January and March 2022 compared to 2020.

This works out as more than half of young adults aged 15-34 (51.7%) and less than two-thirds of women (61.6%).

Six in 10 35-54s expressed the same sentiment and more than three quarters of those aged 55+ (77.8%).

More and more expecting higher levels of debt in future

The number of adults expecting their level of debt to increase in the next few years compared to pre-lockdown 2020 has risen dramatically.

The number of 35-54 year-olds saying their debt levels would go up has increased from 20.6% to 31%, and for 55+ year-olds this grew from 10.1% to 14.9%.

While the percentage of the younger generation echoing this sentiment rose the least with 39.9% of those surveyed felt their level of debt would increase in the coming years compared to 34.4% in pre-lockdown 2020, slightly more men than women thought their debt burden would go up, 28.8% versus 26%.

Increasing awareness of rising price of goods and services

Younger generations are becoming increasingly aware of the price of goods and services going up. This proporition has gone from 78.0% pre-lockdown in 2020 to 84.8% in the beginning of this year.

The research found the number of those aware of these rising costs increased by 4.9% among those aged 15- 34, 11.8% of 35- 54 and 9.7% for 55+.

While there was not a significant contrast between genders on this point, the IPA TouchPoints 2022 study detailed how confidence in the economy fell from 49.8% to 25.7% among all adults, with women less confident than men (10.6% versus 15.2%).

Healthy eating choices ‘wane’

As household budgets are “squeezed” by the rising cost-of-living, the number of consumers preferring organic foods (which tend to be more expensive), has declined by almost a third from 15.1% to 10.9% this year compared to before lockdown.

This decrease was highest for those aged 15-34 falling from 16% to 10%, and for women this fell by 32.1% to 11.2%. specifically among younger generations and women.

The number of adults preferring not to buy genetically-modified (GM) food has reduced by nearly 40% from 48.1% to 29.5%.

For the younger generation this reduced by half so now only 18.5% stated they preferred not to buy GM-foods.

Less than a quarter of adults were stated they always read labels on packaging before purchasing food this year, compared to nearly a third before the pandemic in 2020.

The report stated: “There is a clear indication of a strong correlation between consumers’ squeezed budgets and their less healthy food choices.”

Belinda Beeftink, research director at the IPA, said: “We can only imagine with rising inflation levels and the clouds of a recession beginning to bubble up, that such stats will become bleaker. And so for any brands and their agencies navigating this — whether food — related or not, it may be prudent to focus their comms activity on asserting value for money, on staples vs luxury items and on being seen to be in tune and supportive of their consumers at this tough time.”

The IPA TouchPoints data measures a range of daily lifestyle choices and media habits in a nationally representative  group of around 3,000 GB adults aged 15 and over.