Research from Scottish Friendly has shown that unemployed people have more disposable income on average than zero-hours and part-time workers.
British friendly society and financial services provider Scottish Friendly’s ‘Disposable Income Index’ monitors how much people have left over every month once essential items have been paid for.
Key Stats (Employment type to Disposable Income):
National average: 10.5% / £278
Full time: 11% / £355
Unemployed: 9.3% / £174
Part time: 7.9% / £192
Zero hours: 7.8% / £130
This allows us to see how much disposable income segments of society have, which in this case revealed that unemployed people have more disposable income on average – 9.3% – than people working zero hours contracts – 7.8%.
According to the press release found here unemployed people in the UK have on average £174 disposable income compared to only £130 for those in zero-hour contracts.
There is some positive news in the report that disposable incomes rose by 2.3% in the last three months of statistics covered, which is up 5% compared with the start of the year.
According to Scottish Friendly spokesperson Calum Bernie, “while the country as a whole has higher disposable income than they did a year ago, there is a broader concern that those who work part-time or that have zero-hour roles are likely to have less cash in their back pocket than someone who is unemployed.
“The findings should serve as a stark warning of the problems facing so many workers in the UK. It’s bad enough that people don’t know what is going to be in their wage packet at the end of the month, but the index shows that for certain workers, there now appears to almost be a disincentive to work.”
Looking at the statistics regionally, London saw the biggest rise in disposable income in the three month period. However despite London having the highest average disposable income, people in the North West had the highest percentage at 11.8% compared to London’s 10.4%. The East Midlands came in a close second percentage-wise with 11.3% percent of salary attributed to disposable income.
Disclosure: We worked with Scottish Friendly on this post.
Main image: Night Shot of Keynsham High Street, December 2014 – Photo by Velodenz @ Flickr
