Poor health impacting financial resilience

New research by Hargreaves Lansdown has found that being in poor health means your household is less than half as likely to have enough emergency savings as someone who is well (28% compared to 70%).

The data shows that households have less than a tenth of the cash left over at the end of the month than those in good health (£21 compared to £234).

Only 9% of households in poor health have enough cash left over at the end of the month to be considered resilient – compared to 46% of those in good health.

Separate data from the ONS between 2021 and 2023 found that men are only expected to get to the age of 61.5 in good health, and women 61.9 years – this is lower than before the pandemic. In November 2024, 215,000 people weren’t working because of temporary illnesses, and 2,813,000 were off with long-term sickness.

Sarah Coles, Head of Personal Finance at Hargreaves Lansdown said “Over 3 million people aren’t working right now because their health isn’t up to it, and this could lie in anyone’s future. Sickness – particularly over the long term – can be devastating for your finances, and once it strikes, there’s very little you can do about it. It means we need to take stock now, and protect ourselves from the financial fallout of falling ill.

“Sickness has a massive impact on our income, especially when it makes it more difficult to work. It’s not just the sick person who pays the price, because there’s the risk their loved ones will need to take on caring responsibilities that could make it harder for them to work too. It’s no wonder that the HL Savings & Resilience Barometer shows households headed by someone in poor health have less than half the income than those in good health (£20,175 compared to £43,880).

“There’s a horrible catch 22 when it comes to building protection against periods of sickness. If your health is poor, you’re more likely to need to fall back on sick pay or income protection to provide an income when you can’t work. However, if you’re too sick to find work, you can’t get sick pay. Similarly, if you’re suffering from a long-term condition, it can be incredibly difficult to get affordable insurance cover. As a result, while 84% of those in good health have enough cover, only a quarter (26%) of those in poor health do.”