Scottish Household Survey Annual Report

17 6 Finance On the whole, the proportion of households reporting they were managing well financially has increased, from 42 per cent in 1999 to 56 per cent in 2019. The recent levels suggest a period of recovery following a dip between 2007 and 2012, which may be explained in part by the economic downturn during that period. The proportion of households reporting that they managed well financially was higher for those with higher household incomes than for those with lower. Seventy per cent households with a net annual household income over £30,000 reported that they were managing well, and four per cent said that they did not manage well. The proportion of households with a net annual household income up to £10,000 reporting that they managed well increased from 36 per cent in 2018, to 42 per cent in 2019. Although the majority of households earning up to £10,000 reported that they managed well or got by, one in five (20 per cent) said they did not manage well – more than double the overall Scottish average of nine per cent. As in previous years, single parent 17 and single adult households were the most likely to report that they were not managing well financially (21 and 16 per cent respectively), both above the Scotland average of nine per cent. Of the different household tenures, owner occupiers were most likely to report they were managing well financially (68 per cent compared to only 28 per cent for households in the social rented sector). Households relying mainly on benefits (including the state pension) were the most likely to say they were not managing well financially (15 per cent), which is more than double the rate for households relying on earnings (six per cent). In contrast, only three per cent of households relying on other sources of income (including occupational pension and other investments) reported that they were not managing well financially. 17 It should be noted that the definition of a single parent does not make any distinction between situations where a child has regular contact and/or partly resides with their other parent and a child who solely resides with and is cared for by one parent.