For many Americans, having nowhere to go and nothing to do under the epidemic blockade is a good time to save money. But for nearly 20% of American households, the pandemic destroyed all their financial buffers, according to a poll released on Tuesday.
A poll by National Public Radio, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard Chen Zengxi School of Public Health found that the proportion of respondents who lost all their savings among those earning less than $50,000 a year jumped to 30 per cent. Black and Hispanic families have also been hit harder. The researchers surveyed 3616 American adults aged 18 or older.
Avenel Joseph, vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, says many people use their savings to pay for children or health care. Almost 2/3 of families earning less than $50, 000 a year said they had difficulty paying rent, health care and food.
About 2/3 of the respondents said they had received financial assistance from the government in the past few months. But 44 per cent of respondents said the help had "only made a small difference".
"We always knew that the economic recovery would not be balanced," Joseph said. "there are always loopholes in the safety net, and the epidemic tore those loopholes even bigger."