This major UK survey of nearly 18,000 adults tracks the financial circumstances and vulnerability of the UK population, including how poor health interacts with people’s financial resilience over time, identifying the key drivers behind financial vulnerability nationally, published annually by the UK’s financial regulator.
What was studied?
The FCA identifies four key drivers of financial vulnerability: poor health, negative life events, low financial resilience and low capability, naming poor health, including chronic pain, explicitly as one of these core drivers.
What did they find?
49 percent of UK adults showed characteristics of financial vulnerability in 2024, a slight improvement from 52 percent in 2022, but still describing roughly half the adult population. Health conditions, including chronic pain, are directly and formally linked to financial vulnerability by the UK's financial regulator.
Why it matters
Persistent pain and health conditions can genuinely affect a person's financial situation, not just their physical wellbeing, and roughly half of UK adults are considered financially vulnerable in some way.
Why we included it
It illustrates why healthcare providers should treat cost openly rather than as an afterthought: financial pressure and health problems are closely linked for a huge share of the population, not an awkward exception.
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What was studied?
The FCA identifies four key drivers of financial vulnerability: poor health, negative life events, low financial resilience and low capability, naming poor health, including chronic pain, explicitly as one of these core drivers.
What did they find?
49 percent of UK adults showed characteristics of financial vulnerability in 2024, a slight improvement from 52 percent in 2022, but still describing roughly half the adult population. Health conditions, including chronic pain, are directly and formally linked to financial vulnerability by the UK's financial regulator.
Why it matters
Persistent pain and health conditions can genuinely affect a person's financial situation, not just their physical wellbeing, and roughly half of UK adults are considered financially vulnerable in some way.
Why we included it
It illustrates why healthcare providers should treat cost openly rather than as an afterthought: financial pressure and health problems are closely linked for a huge share of the population, not an awkward exception.