By Richard Barwell of the Bank's Inflation Report and Bulletin Division and Orla May and Silvia Pezzini of the Bank's Systemic Risk Assessment Division.
This article summarises the key results from the latest survey carried out for the Bank by NMG Research about the state of household finances. A relatively small proportion of households accounted for a large amount of the assets owned, income earned and debts owed by the whole sample. The majority of households appeared to be comfortable with their finances. But there were a small number of households who appeared to be in distress: typically they had below-average incomes and no or not many assets to draw on. The proportion of the sample in financial distress was little changed from a year earlier. The survey indicated that very few people viewed bankruptcy as a solution to debt problems.
The distribution of assets, income and liabilities across UK households: results from the 2005 NMG Research survey
NMG household survey data