What today’s data tells us: people are worried about making ends meet

This week we reported on the phenomenal increase in visits to the Citizens Advice website — last week we had 2.2 million views, making it the busiest week yet in our history.

Over the past few days, we’ve seen growing trends in our data that show people are worried about whether they can cover their essential living costs. Since Monday, our webpage on what to do if you can’t pay your bills because of coronavirus has been viewed over 150,000 times.

Alongside this, advice about bills, rent arrears and benefits are increasingly dominating our top 25 most viewed web pages.

People are worried they can’t afford to pay rent

Since Monday, our online advice on dealing with rent arrears has been viewed over 13,500 times.

There’s also been a concerning peak in the number of people looking for advice on what to do if they can’t afford the rent for their council home.

Energy bills are a concern too

Last week we saw a spike in views to our page on what to do if you can’t afford to top up your prepayment meter. An increase of over 13,000% on the same time last year.

Concerns about paying energy bills are starting to creep back up. Our page on grants and benefits to help you pay your energy bills has been viewed over 5,800 times since Monday.

Demand for advice on benefits is increasing as a result

The Department for Work and Pensions has reported a significant increase in applications for Universal Credit since last week.

Our data tells a similar story. As people struggle to cover their costs of living during this crisis, more and more people are turning to our website for advice on their entitlement to benefits and how to claim them.

More on our data

For a real-time view into the types of issues people are concerned about, see our live traffic and searches tracker.

Look out as well for more regular updates, on our blog, on what our data is telling us about the impact of coronavirus on people’s lives.