- Asda’s Income Tracker reveals the average UK household saw discretionary income fall by £16.19 per week year-on-year in March – equivalent to £841.88 per year
- Household discretionary income has now fallen for five consecutive months
- Nine out of 10 Asda customers say they are concerned about the cost-of-living crisis
| Household income (weekly average) | Y-o-Y% change | Essential spending (weekly average) | Y-o-Y% change | Household discretionary income (weekly average) | Y-o-Y% change | |
| March 2022 | £884 | 3.03% | £512 | 7.8% | £231 | -6.5% |
Asda’s latest Income Tracker has revealed that UK households experienced the biggest fall in discretionary income on record last month due to soaring living costs.
The Income Tracker showed that after paying taxes and essential bills, households had an average discretionary income of £231 per week in March, down £16.19 a week year-on-year, representing the largest fall since the tracker was created in 2008.
Households are feeling the pinch, as essential spending on energy bills, fuel, groceries, rent and mortgages rose by an average of £37 per week in March, compared to the previous year.
As a result of rising living costs, household discretionary income has now fallen for the fifth consecutive month and is now at the lowest level in 19 months (Sept 2020: weekly average £227).
In a separate survey of more than 1,000 Asda shoppers, nine out of ten said they are worried about the cost-of-living crisis, with 44% stating they are looking to make their grocery budgets stretch further by purchasing products on promotion.
To help customers and colleagues tackle rising living costs, Asda is introducing a series of new initiatives. These include a £73m investment to ‘Drop and Lock’ the prices of 100 popular products for the rest of this year, as well as increasing pay for 120,000 shop floor colleagues to £10.10 per hour from July.
The news comes just weeks after the supermarket announced a multi-million investment into a new, budget-friendly essentials range – ‘Just Essentials at Asda’. The value focused range, which launches later next month and replaces Asda’s existing Smart Price products, will offer customers over 300 low priced essential products and has been designed to ensure shoppers can keep the family fed, clean and watered on the tightest budget.
Download a copy of the March 2022 Income Tracker here.
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