Monthly client data report:
March - April 2020

Coronavirus lockdown client report

Our latest report provides insight into the demographic and debt information of clients who got debt advice in the first five weeks of lockdown.

This report also provides website traffic information and comparisons of all new data to previous years. New reports outlining our latest client data will be released monthly.

In the five weeks following the implementation of a lockdown:

Visits to our website increased by 36%

We saw a 36% increase in visits to our website compared to the same time period last year. Much of this unprecedented demand was for our coronavirus ‘emergency advice’ pages. Sadly, common search terms included: “help with food”, “I have no money and need help” and “emergency money”.

Less people asked for debt advice

The number of people seeking debt advice fell significantly below the level we would have otherwise expected to see. Additionally, almost one in ten (9%) new debt advice clients said coronavirus was the main reason for their problem debt.

Payment holidays, the suspension of some types of debt enforcement and people having to prioritise emergency money needs are likely to have deferred demand for debt advice.

We would expect to see this appear as additional demand latter in the year, along with new demand created by coronavirus-related shocks to household incomes.

1 in 10 new clients said coronavirus caused their debt

Unemployment and redundancy were the main causes of debt

One in five (19%) new clients said experiencing unemployment or redundancy was a main reason for debt, up from 16% at the same time last year. This highlights that for many people, the economic shock of coronavirus had already created or worsened their financial difficulty.