Financial lives and wellbeing in low-income groups post Covid-19 (FinWell-Covid)

Amongst those hit hardest by COVID-19, and the associated social and economic measures put in place to combat it, will be people in low-income settings, and, within that group, those in hard-to-reach groups continually threatened by financial exclusion.

People in such situations already live in precarious financial situations which could be amongst the most vulnerable to measures such as social distancing and self-isolation.

Having recently worked with groups in Glasgow and London to explore the relationship between their financial lives and their health and wellbeing, we have an opportunity to follow up with these same groups in order to assess the impact of COVID-19 and measures such as social distancing on their financial portfolios, their short-term health and wellbeing and wider social determinants of health.

We propose to do this via a unique combination of financial diary keeping and regular interviews which we have developed for working with such groups, and which can be adapted for remote working.

In addition, we will seek the views of such groups as to perceptions of causes and solutions to COVID-19 which can be reconciled with more evidence-based data from other research projects.