Money worries impacting employees’ ability to sleep

Two thirds of UK workers have experienced stress as a result of their personal finances in 2020.

Hastee’s Workplace Wellbeing Study found this stress was impacting many areas of workers’ lives, yet just one in five workplaces offer financial wellbeing initiatives.

Respondents to the study said personal finance impacted sleep (28%), relationships with partners (15%), health (14%), concentration at work (13%), and even their ability to pay for their commute (12%).

Seven per cent admitted to calling in sick due to financial stress.

This is leading to 59% of workers relying on high-cost credit, which is often difficult to repay due to high interest rates.

Younger workers were more likely to regularly use this credit, with over half (58%) of 18 to 24-year-olds having turned to high-cost credit once every three months or more and 38% using it every month.

This contrasts with just 12% of those aged 55 to 64 using high-interest credit. Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, 66% of workers said their spending habits had changed.

Fifty-nine per cent of respondents said they would now like to access their wages early as they believe it would stop them resorting to using high-interest credit loans.

The survey also found more workers were being attracted to job roles which allowed them to alter their pay frequency to fit in with their lifestyles.

Eighty-one per cent of respondents said they took pay frequency into consideration when looking for a new job, with 52% more likely to stay with an employer offering these benefits. This increased to 75% of 18 to 24-year-olds.