A third of UK workers under £40k having to create side hustles to make ends meet

Estimated read time: 5 mins

One in three lower-income workers have had to create extra income to get by, while many are cutting back on non-essential spending
Households are saving just £3 in every £100 earned, with rising water, rent and grocery bills wiping out what little is left
42% say the financial pressure is affecting their mental health — and two thirds believe the cost-of-living crisis is not getting any better

London, 28 May 2026:

New consumer survey and spending data from the Vanquis Financial Wellbeing Index reveals that one in three workers earning under £40,000 are creating additional income streams to make ends meet, while households continue saving less than £3 in every £100 earned.

The savings challenge

Despite widespread efforts to manage money carefully, many households simply don’t have enough left over to save. A quarter say their income is too low or too unpredictable to save regularly, while 29% say they have saved nothing over the past six months. A further 27% say unexpected costs are wiping out what they do manage to set aside – with groceries (25%), car repairs (19%) and utility bills (17%) being the most common triggers.

Bills are making this harder. Spending data shows water bills have risen 30% in the past year, with rent and mortgage costs also up 9%, and council tax up 7%.

Cost cutting measures

Most households are already doing what they can to stretch their money further. Two thirds (77%) are cutting back on non-essential spending to ease the pressure, while 64% are buying more own-label grocery products and 60% are switching to cheaper supermarkets.

Tentative signs of stabilisation

Despite ongoing pressures, there are some early signs that the worst could be easing for many. Spending data shows income for households earning under £40,000 grew 9% over the last quarter, while quality of life spending is cautiously rising, with entertainment and leisure up 7% year-on-year, travel and holidays up 4%, and fitness up 6% over the same period.

Financial strain taking its toll

However, the pressure of sustained financial difficulty is still impacting wellbeing and confidence about the future. Around 42% of people in households earning under £40,000 say their financial situation is affecting their mental wellbeing, 30% say it Is impacting on their physical health. Around two thirds say the cost-of-living crisis is “not getting any better.”

Financial Wellbeing Index score

This edition marks the first publication of the Vanquis Financial Wellbeing Index score – a new measure that will track the financial health of UK households over time across four areas: saving, borrowing, spending and planning. Households earning under £40,000 score 68 out of 100, placing them in the moderate band – managing from month to month, but not yet building the financial security they need.

Ian McLaughlin, CEO of Vanquis said:

“This data paints a vivid picture of the ongoing cost-of-living squeeze on hard-working Brits. People are doing everything right – finding extra sources of income, cutting back, managing their money carefully – yet rising essential costs continue to erode the financial headroom they need to get ahead.

While there are encouraging signs that spending is beginning to stabilise, the bigger challenge remains converting short-term resilience into long-term financial security. Too many households are finishing the month with little or nothing left to save. Without that buffer, financial confidence remains fragile.”

Vanquis’ bi-annual report draws on two complementary datasets, providing a quantitative and qualitative view of the financial wellbeing of this group. This includes anonymised, transaction-level spending data from money management app Snoop, complemented by consumer research from Mintel, which explores attitudes, confidence and financial sentiment.

Read the Vanquis Financial Wellbeing Index here.

About Vanquis

Vanquis is the UK’s largest specialist finance provider for financially underserved customers and one of the biggest financial services businesses outside the Southeast.
Headquartered in Bradford and listed on the London Stock Exchange, Vanquis serves 1.7 million customers through core banking services and Snoop, a platform that helps individuals save up to £1,500 annually on spending and household bills.
Committed to financial inclusion and social mobility, Vanquis provides tailored products and services that empower customers to take control of their financial futures. This aligns with our mission: to deliver caring banking so our customers can make the most of life’s opportunities

About the Vanquis Financial Wellbeing Index

The Vanquis Financial Wellbeing Index (VFWI) is a bi-annual measure of UK household financial wellbeing, combining behavioural spending and savings data with consumer sentiment research to track changes in financial resilience, confidence and affordability over time.
This edition marks the first introduction of the headline VFWI score, which will be tracked on an ongoing basis to monitor how household financial wellbeing evolves across the UK.
These Financial Wellbeing Scores were determined using a min-max normalisation which was applied to the consumer data of the VFWI Tracker.
Data Sources: Snoop | based on anonymised transactional data (from a stable cohort of 23,886 households earning up to £40,000 a year) and a Consumer Financial Wellbeing Survey on behalf of Vanquis.
- Source: Mintel/Kantar Profiles/
- Fieldwork dates: 27th April- 13th May 2026
- Base: 2000 | GB | aged 16+ –
  - 1048 earning less than £40k pa
  - 849 earning more than £40k pa
  - 103 preferred not to disclose earnings
¹Mintel survey data
²Snoop transaction data