ABSTRACT
The Covid-19 pandemic had a devastating impact on personal finances in the UK, with problem debt growing substantially as a result. However, just like the Covid-19 virus, the debt ‘virus,’ did not affect all groups equally. Some groups were more likely to ‘catch’ the debt virus, while others were immune. And, indeed, some groups saw their financial health improve during the Covid-19 pandemic. This chapter reviews the unequal financial impact of the pandemic in the UK and argues that we can only explain this by understanding the more fundamental drivers of inequality and problem debt which predate the pandemic and which had been further fuelled by a decade of Austerity policies followed by Brexit.
