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31 mins
Oct 27, 2025
For too long, financial health has been measured simply using metrics like income and debt. The FinWell Index changes that. Developed by Stream and behavioural scientists at CogCo, this is the UK’s most comprehensive tracker of financial health, assessing not just what people have, but what they are able to do (Capabilities) and how they feel (Subjective Wellbeing).
In a complicated economic environment, objective data only tells half the story. The FinWell Index reveals the true pressures on people across the UK - from high earners experiencing worry to lower earners demonstrating impressive resilience.
The FinWell Index has been designed to measure and track the state of the nation's financial wellbeing. It enables us to see whether the financial wellbeing of people across the UK has improved or decreased year-on-year.
The FinWell Index does this through a nationally representative study of the UK population. The sample comprised 2,321 UK adults, representative of age, gender and region. The study gathers information about people's financial situations (such as how much they earn) and uses this to understand what it enables individuals to do (financial capabilities), and how it makes them feel (subjective wellbeing).
This 'capabilities and subjective wellbeing' approach enables us to overcome challenges with purely objective measures, which tend to overlook the fact that many people on relatively higher incomes experience frequent financial worries; and many on lower incomes are able to manage their financial affairs without significant concerns.
So what have we discovered about the financial wellbeing of the nation this year?
The headline finding for 2025 is that there has been a decline in the FinWell Index score from 100 to 99.1.
Beneath this headline result is a set of starker findings.
While people's subjective feelings have held up or even increased (on average, people report losing slightly less sleep and feeling slightly less guilty about their financial situations), the same cannot be said about people's capabilities.
Several capability measures showed notable decreases. There has been a 2.5% decline in debt management capability, and a 2.4% drop in people's ability to pay for all necessary expenses. These are large, year-on-year changes.
One of the most concerning findings from 2025 is the expansion of the already-significant gender gap in financial wellbeing. The gap has widened from 5.2 points in 2024 to 6.7 points in 2025 - a 29% increase in inequality.
We continue to see a strong relationship between age and financial wellbeing. In general, the older you are, the higher your FinWell Index score. Our youngest group of 18-24 year olds have the lowest score of any age group (87.7), while our oldest group of those who are 75 or older continue to have the highest scores (117.7).
One cohort that bucked the trend is the 25-34 age group, who saw an increase in FinWell Index score of 4.7 points, rising from 92.1 to 96.8.
There were worrying signs in the 2025 FinWell Index for particular groups. It is perhaps no surprise that the unemployed experience some of the lowest levels of financial wellbeing. But they also experienced one of the largest declines, dropping 6.1 points from 81.2 to 75.1.
Students are also struggling, declining by 2.3 points from an already-low baseline of 87.0 to 84.7. Their resilience fell by 6.2 points, suggesting they're finding it harder to cope with financial shocks or manage their limited resources.
Lastly, single parents continued to fare poorly, declining by 1.6 points from 85.8 to 84.2.
The FinWell Index paints an even more challenging picture for the UK population's financial situation than it did last year. And once again, it shows that the challenges are especially big for particular groups.
The results might feel bleak, but we believe there are glimmers of hope and the opportunity for positive action. We recommend three ways for employers and policy-makers to use these results:
- Connect demographic characteristics with index results to pinpoint unique challenges and opportunities
- Support people to build a positive relationship with money to help close the gaps
- Dig into intersecting challenges to identify groups who would benefit the most from policy or benefit changes
By moving beyond measurement into action, we have the potential to change the trajectory of financial wellbeing in the UK.
Imagine you have £500 in your bank account. How does that make you feel?
The answer is: it depends.
The idea that you have just £500 might make you feel incredibly stressed. Perhaps you've got bills to pay, mouths to feed and payday is still weeks away. Or, in another set of circumstances having a positive balance of £500 could make you feel like the richest person in the world - £500 in freely available money may feel like unimaginable wealth.
Leap into another set of shoes and perhaps £500 isn't quite enough, but you know you've got a partner or parents you can lean on if things get tough, so you'll be okay ultimately. Or - maybe you are the partner or parent that people are leaning on and you're not quite sure how you'll scrape by.
You could change the number in this example. Make it £5,000 or even £50,000 and there would still be people breaking out into a cold sweat from worry. Drop it to £50 and there would be others yet who would be genuinely overjoyed to have a spare £50 in their account.
Our financial lives are complicated and intrinsically linked to our social lives. Measuring financial wellbeing means we need to ask and understand how someone's assets, debts, income and expenses translate into their worries and satisfactions, and how these things restrict us, and what they make us capable of achieving.
Only when we have the answers can we start to understand how financial wellbeing changes over time, whether policies and benefits are helping or harming, and which groups of people are faring best and worst. Getting a deep understanding of financial wellbeing in the UK helps us make decisions - big and small - about where to focus energy and investment, and tells us what else we need to measure.
We are proud to introduce the FinWell Index, a new and comprehensive way of understanding how people are faring when it comes to their money. This project has been years in the making. We hope you'll take the time to learn more about the FinWell Index, how it's measured and what you can do with the data.
This report is in four distinct sections.
In the first section, we unpack the concept of financial wellbeing and why it is both tricky but important to measure.
In the second section, we lift the lid on how the FinWell Index was created and its grounding in academic theory.
In the third section we present the baseline results from 2024, followed by the 2025 FinWell Index results. Jump in here if you want to skip the theory and get straight to the data!
In the final section, we leave you with a few ideas for how to make use of the FinWell Index data.
We hope that the FinWell Index helps to play a role in identifying opportunities for change. And we at Stream and CogCo will continue to play a part in making these changes happen.
— Emily Trant, Chief Impact Officer, Stream
— Owain Service, CEO, CogCo
Measuring financial wellbeing starts with being clear about what we mean by the term.
Financial wellbeing isn't a single, universally agreed-upon concept. Different frameworks emphasise different aspects, reflecting the goals and philosophies of those doing the measuring.
One of the most traditional ways of measuring an individual's financial situation is to look solely at their bank account. To track how much they or their household earns each month, to understand how much they have in their savings accounts and whether they have debts piling up.
These 'objective' measures of a person's financial situation are important, and we gather them as part of the FinWell Index study. But a person's objective financial situation only tells you so much about their overall levels of financial wellbeing.
That is why the FinWell Index focuses on what a person's financial situation enables them to do, and how it makes them feel.
Let's look at why this is important.
Someone may earn a very modest wage, have relatively little in their savings account, but be very capable of managing their budget day-to-day. This person might look like they are in an objectively challenging financial situation, but display very high levels of financial capability. Similarly, a person on a very high income may find that they are struggling to manage their finances, finding that they are not fully able to pay for necessary expenses.
This freedom and ability to act in the financial domain is known as financial capability.
Similarly, we know that there are many people who are relatively very high earners, but are still worried about their financial situation. And those on lower incomes who have relatively few financial troubles and concerns.
This experience of life, specifically its financial domain, is subjective financial wellbeing.
When we talk about financial wellbeing, we are focused on both what a person's financial situation enables them to do (capability) and how it makes them feel (subjective wellbeing).
In the following sections, we will look at how we are measuring financial capability and subjective financial wellbeing through the questions that the FinWell Index study asks. But here, we examine some of the concepts that underpin the questions in the study.
When people have a sense of control and security over their environment, they are more likely to engage and persist with activities, especially those that are challenging or stressful. How you feel about your money influences how you behave with it, and research finds that stress and anxiety about money can lead to objectively worse money choices.
As a society we all agree that a minimum standard of living includes safe and comfortable housing, social and recreational activities, a wide range of consumer goods and services, and the chance to experience joy and celebratory events.
Good financial wellbeing means you have the financial resilience to manage an unplanned income or expense shock such as unpaid time off work due to illness or injury, an unexpected vet or dental bill, coping with a bereavement, and more.
This means striking a balance between today and tomorrow, ensuring there are plans in place for the future. This can also include having adequate insurance policies in place that will provide a buffer in case a major life or financial shock occurs.
Measuring financial wellbeing seems like it should be straightforward. At first glance the idea of using objective data such as bank account transaction information, appears to be a pretty good measure of how someone's financial life is going. But dig deeper and you'll see that it's not so simple.
Objective data
Some things are easy to observe and measure. Income, bank account balance, upcoming bill payments, level of retirement saving and more. These are all examples of objective data that can be measured relatively easily by employers, banks and financial services providers.
This might seem like the right way to get started, but it's only part of the story. The fact that someone earns a lot doesn't tell us whether they feel prepared for the future, whether they are able to make the most of their money today, and whether they could manage a financial shock.
Self-reported data
To know if someone's financial life is going well, we need to ask people how they are experiencing their financial lives. Self-reported data, or data gathered by asking people to report their experiences, helps us to better understand the situations that people face in their everyday lives.
There are challenges with self-reported data. For example, it is common for individuals to over-weight events that happened more recently than those which are harder to recall that took place in the past ('recency bias'). Similarly, we tend to be more optimistic than we should be about our skills or relative performance ('optimism bias').
But well crafted questions that have been validated in academic literature enable us to understand more deeply the financial situation a person faces. And as we shall see, they enable us to look not just at a person's objective financial situation (how much they earn), but how their financial situation makes them feel (subjective wellbeing), and what it enables them to do (capability).
The FinWell Index is neither the first nor the only way to measure financial wellbeing.
Two other ways to measure financial wellbeing
1. The Financial Health Network in the US has been measuring and tracking the financial health of Americans since 2018. At Stream we've been using the Financial Health Network's FinHealth Score Toolkit in our own research since 2022. It's an excellent framework that measures financial health across spending, saving, borrowing and planning. The eight questions that make up the FinHealth Score give a clear picture of how Americans are coping with day-to-day financial pressures, and whether they are prepared for the future. The research programme is called the Financial Health Pulse, and it's a nationally representative study that draws on data from the Understanding America Study, administered by the University of Southern California. The toolkit, including scoring guide, is freely available under licence for non-commercial use.
2. In the UK, the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) has spent time developing their Financial Fitness Tool, comprising nine questions. These nine questions are aligned with the 10 year strategy that MaPS launched in 2020. The nine questions are available online, and for organisations wishing to use the scoring guide they are advised to contact their MaPS regional partnerships manager.
As a key difference, both the Financial Health Pulse in the US and the Financial Fitness Tool in the UK directly ask about plans for the future and levels/confidence in retirement savings, whereas the FinWell Index does not.
We agree that having a secure financial future is essential, but change happens slowly. If someone started saving today for their retirement they wouldn't be confident of a secure financial future by next week, but they would be taking the positive actions that put them on the path to that outcome. The outcome itself - in this example, long-term financial security - will follow in time.
The FinWell Index was developed by behavioural science firm CogCo. The index was first created in September 2024 using a nationally representative sample who each answer 15 questions, and also provide demographic information such as gender, age, income, employment and so on. The nationally representative sample comprised 1,288 respondents in 2024.
The Index is built around two core theories:
Financial capabilities
We wanted to measure what people are able to do, not just what they currently do. This draws on economist Amartya Sen's "capability approach" - the idea that wellbeing depends on having genuine options and freedoms.
For example: Someone who earns well and chooses not to save because they're comfortable taking risks is in a fundamentally different position than someone who can't save even though they want to. Both might have empty savings accounts, but only one has the capability to save if needed.
Subjective wellbeing
We capture how people feel about their financial situation - their worries, their satisfaction, their sense of security.
Capabilities tell us what's possible for someone - whether they have the real freedom to save, to handle a shock, to make financial choices. But capabilities alone can't tell us how someone is actually doing. You might have emergency savings and strong financial skills, yet still be consumed by anxiety about money. That's not wellbeing.
Subjective wellbeing tells us how someone actually feels - their worry, their satisfaction, their sense of security. But feelings alone can mislead us. Someone might feel perfectly content with very limited financial options, not because they're truly thriving, but because they've adapted their expectations to match their constraints. Contentment born from lowered aspirations isn't the same as genuine wellbeing.
"Contentment born from lowered aspirations isn't the same as genuine wellbeing."
This is why financial wellbeing requires both. High capability with high anxiety suggests someone needs support managing worry, not building skills. High contentment with low capability might indicate someone has adapted to circumstances that limit their life - they need resources and opportunities, not reassurance. By measuring both together, we can see the full picture and understand what kind of support would actually help.
Step 1: Literature review
Rather than start from scratch, we searched the academic literature for existing, validated measures related to finances. These are tools that have been tested and published in peer-reviewed journals.
We identified measures covering:
- Subjective financial wellbeing (how people feel about money)
- Financial capabilities (what people are able to do)
- Financial functionings (what people actually do, which we reframed as capabilities)
Step 2: Creating our long list
This search gave us approximately 450 potential questions. We then categorised these into thematic groups and selected representative items from each group that aligned with our theoretical framework.
This process reduced our list to 45 questions. However, it was still possible that many of these questions were measuring similar underlying concepts, just worded differently.
Step 3: Pilot testing
We ran a pilot study with 185 UK respondents, asking all 45 questions. The goal wasn't just to see how people answered - it was to understand the structure underneath their answers. Using Principal Component Analysis, we identified patterns in how responses clustered together. This statistical technique revealed which questions were essentially asking about the same thing (even if worded differently) and which questions captured genuinely distinct aspects of financial wellbeing.
Step 4: Final 15 questions
The analysis revealed that 15 carefully selected questions could capture the full range of financial wellbeing without redundancy. These were organised into five distinct dimensions:
Financial resilience - Can you cope with unexpected financial shocks?
"I am able to cover unexpected expenses without relying on high-cost or unaffordable borrowing"
Financial control - Can you manage spending and stick to plans?
"I am able to keep myself from spending too much"
Financial management skills - Are you confident making financial decisions?
"I am able to pay for all necessary expenses each month (such as mortgage/rent, debt payments, and groceries)"
Financial limitations on wellbeing - Can you afford life's simple pleasures?
"How often can your household afford to do activities just for fun like eating out or going to the movies?"
Subjective financial wellbeing - How satisfied and worry-free do you feel?
"How satisfied are you with your current financial situation?"
Each dimension is measured by three questions, answered on a seven-point scale. These responses are then aggregated and indexed to create scores for each dimension and an overall FinWell Index score.
Step 5: Setting the baseline
In September 2024, we administered the final 15 questions to a nationally representative sample of 1,288 UK adults, weighted to match the UK population on key demographics.
We indexed this baseline to 100, allowing us to track changes over time and compare different groups. Scores above 100 indicate above-average financial wellbeing; scores below 100 indicate below-average wellbeing.
Setting the baseline to 100 allows us to:
Compare groups: Different demographic groups can score above or below 100 in any given year. A score of 105 means that group's financial wellbeing is 5% above the UK average; a score of 95 means it's 5% below the average.
Track changes over time: In future years, we can see whether the nation's financial wellbeing has improved (scores above 100) or declined (scores below 100) compared to 2024.
Understand movements in points and percentages: Changes can be expressed as point differences relative to the baseline. For example, a movement from 100 to 98 is a decline of 2 points, or 2 percentage points relative to the 2024 average.
While the 2024 overall UK average is, by definition, exactly 100 in 2024, this headline figure conceals profound inequalities. Different groups experienced vastly different levels of financial wellbeing in our baseline year - and these disparities tell us which groups were already struggling and which were thriving.
In the 2024 FinWell Index, we found that men had significantly higher financial wellbeing than women, and scored more highly in each of the five categories. The narrowest gap is in financial control, where just 3.3 points separated men from women. The largest gap was in subjective financial wellbeing, with a whopping 9.9 point gap.
Index and SubIndex scores by gender 2024
- Index: Female 97.7, Male 102.9
- Financial resilience: Female 97.5, Male 103.2
- Financial control: Female 98.6, Male 101.9
- Financial management: Female 98.6, Male 102.0
- Financial limitations on wellbeing: Female 97.9, Male 102.2
- Subjective financial wellbeing: Female 95.7, Male 105.6
The 2024 FinWell Index revealed that financial wellbeing rises steadily with age, with only a slight dip in the 45-54 age group. However, age alone isn't a determining factor. Many of the other characteristics that are positively associated with financial wellbeing also correlate with age. These include relationship status, and looking after dependant children.
FinWell scores by age group 2024
- 18-24: 87.5
- 25-34: 92.1
- 35-44: 98.0
- 45-54: 96.1
- 55-64: 105.3
- 65-74: 110.8
- 75+: 115.1
Demographic characteristics and financial wellbeing
Relationship status:
- Single: 92.4
- Couple: 105.2
Dependant children:
- Have dependants (single): 85.8
- Have dependants (couple): 99.8
- No dependants (single): 101.1
- No dependants (couple): 106.3
At first glance it appears from the 2024 FinWell Index that being single is hugely detrimental to financial wellbeing. However, when we look deeper into the data it is clear that being single in and of itself isn't the challenge; it's being a single parent. In the 2024 FinWell Index, single parents had a FinWell Index score of 85.8 compared to single individuals without dependant children, who scored 101.1.
Plotting financial wellbeing by income tells an interesting story. It's certainly true that wellbeing rises with income, but not as sharply or as steadily as you might think.
In the 2024 FinWell Index, those earning below £10,000 a year had significantly lower financial wellbeing than anyone else; and those earning more than £80,000 had the highest levels of financial wellbeing.
But those earning between £10,000 and £30,000 all had more or less average levels of financial wellbeing (there wasn't a great difference between those earning £10-20,000 and those earning £25-30,000).
And while there is a step up for those earning between £30,000 and £60,000, it is not as dramatic as one might expect (especially for those earning between £50,000 and £60,000) - another reason why it is important to focus on capabilities and subjective wellbeing, not just cash.
The headline finding for 2025 is that there has been a decline in the FinWell Index score from 100 to 99.1, representing a decline from the baseline of 100 set in 2024. This is the overall headline figure, that captures the average levels of decline across the whole of our representative sample of the population.
But as we will see, this relatively modest overall decline masks some intriguing divergences between capabilities and subjective wellbeing. And between different groups, which in some cases show some worrying increases in divides relative to the 2024 FinWell Index.
Five key capability measures showed notable decreases, each declining by approximately 2% to 2.5%. The pattern is consistent: people report being less able to manage debt comfortably, pay necessary monthly expenses, set financial boundaries, follow through on financial intentions, and ensure their household finances meet their needs.
The most significant decline was in debt management capability, which fell 2.5%. Similarly, the ability to pay for all necessary expenses each month dropped 2.4%, while people's capacity to set and maintain financial boundaries decreased by 2.3%.
These aren't dramatic drops in absolute terms - we're talking about national movements on a seven-point scale where most responses cluster around "agree" or "somewhat agree." Yet the consistency across multiple capability measures suggests genuine pressure on people's financial room for maneuver.
"I am able to manage my debt to ensure it remains within a comfortable level."
4.50 (agree) to 4.39 (somewhat agree) — 2.5% decrease
"I am able to pay for all necessary expenses each month."
4.80 (agree) to 4.69 (agree) — 2.4% decrease
"I am able to set and maintain clear financial boundaries to protect myself from being taken advantage of."
4.52 (agree) to 4.41 (somewhat agree) — 2.3% decrease
"I know how to get myself to follow through on my financial intentions."
4.36 (somewhat agree) to 4.27 (somewhat agree) — 2.1% decrease
"I am able to ensure that my household's financial situation at the end of each month is sufficient to meet or exceed our needs."
4.40 (somewhat agree) to 4.32 (somewhat agree) — 2.0% decrease
Against this backdrop of declining capabilities, subjective financial wellbeing tells a different story. Overall satisfaction with current financial situations improved modestly by 1.3%, moving from 3.41 to 3.46 on the seven-point scale (both firmly in "neither satisfied nor dissatisfied" territory). People also reported losing slightly less sleep over money worries (up 1.0%) and feeling marginally less guilt about their finances (up 0.5%).
"How satisfied are you with your current financial situation?"
3.41 (neither satisfied nor dissatisfied) to 3.46 (neither satisfied nor dissatisfied) — 1.3% increase
"I often lose sleep due to worrying about my finances." (reverse-scored)
3.97 (somewhat disagree) to 4.01 (somewhat disagree) — 1.0% increase
"Thinking about my finances can make me feel guilty." (reverse-scored)
3.53 (somewhat disagree) to 3.54 (somewhat disagree) — 0.5% increase
Why might people feel stable or slightly better about their finances even as their actual financial capabilities have declined? Several explanations are possible:
Expectation adjustment
When financial pressures become widespread - discussed in news coverage, on social media, and in conversations with friends and family - people may recalibrate their expectations. Feeling "about the same as everyone else" can provide a sense of normalcy even when circumstances are objectively harder. If struggling has become the new normal, it paradoxically becomes less distressing.
Active coping
People may be finding other ways to manage the psychological burden of reduced financial capabilities. This could include seeking social support, reframing their situation, or focusing on aspects of life they can control. The FinWell Index was designed to be sensitive to short-term changes in capabilities, and these can shift relatively quickly in response to economic conditions. Emotional responses, by contrast, may adapt more gradually.
Hedonic adaptation
Humans have a remarkable capacity to adapt to new circumstances, even negative ones. Over time, what initially feels like a crisis can come to feel like the baseline. While this resilience is psychologically protective in the short term, it also means people may accept constrained circumstances as normal when they deserve better.
One of the most concerning findings from 2025 is the expansion of the already-significant gender gap in financial wellbeing. The gap has widened from 5.2 points in 2024 to 6.7 points in 2025 - a 29% increase in inequality.
This widening gap is driven almost entirely by women's declining scores rather than men's improvement:
- Women dropped from 97.7 to 95.8 (-1.9 points)
- Men barely changed: 102.9 to 102.5 (-0.4 points)
The divergence is most stark in financial resilience. Women's resilience scores fell by 3.9 points while men's rose by 1.2 points. This opened up the resilience gap from 5.7 points to 10.8 points - nearly doubling the inequality in just one year.
The subjective wellbeing gap also widened, from 9.9 points to 10.6 points. Women's subjective wellbeing remained flat (0.0 change) while men's improved slightly (+0.7). This means women are not only experiencing worse financial capabilities than men, they're also feeling significantly worse about their financial situation.
These findings suggest that whatever economic pressures are affecting the population, they're falling disproportionately on women - or women are less equipped to weather them.
The older you are, the higher your financial wellbeing
In 2025, the fundamental relationship between age and financial wellbeing remains clear: in general, the older you are, the higher your FinWell Index score. Our youngest group of 18-24 year olds have the lowest score of any age group (87.7), while our oldest group of those who are 75 or older continue to have the highest scores (117.7).
FinWell scores by age group 2025
- 18-24: 87.7
- 25-34: 96.8
- 35-44: 92.0
- 45-54: 93.8
- 55-64: 100.7
- 65-74: 111.3
- 75+: 117.7
This pattern held true in 2024 and persists in 2025, but what's changed is how different age groups have moved year-on-year. While the general age gradient remains, the pressures of the past year have not affected all age groups equally. Some groups have seen their financial wellbeing improve, while others have experienced sharp declines.
The 35-44 age group experienced the sharpest decline in financial wellbeing of any demographic, dropping 6.0 points from 98.0 to 92.0. The decline was driven by a dramatic fall in financial resilience (-9.9 points) accompanied by a significant drop in subjective wellbeing (-4.0 points). This age group is feeling the pressure both objectively and psychologically.
Why are 35-44 year olds under such strain? This is typically a life stage characterised by multiple competing financial demands: mortgages or rising rents, childcare costs, supporting aging parents, and trying to save for the future while managing day-to-day expenses. When economic conditions tighten, this group has the least flexibility - they can't delay major life expenses the way younger adults might, nor do they have the accumulated assets that older adults possess.
The 55-64 age group also saw a sharp decline of 4.6 points (105.3 to 100.7), with resilience dropping 9.0 points. This pre-retirement cohort typically enjoys above-average financial wellbeing, but they're now experiencing significant erosion.
The 25-34 age group stands out as an exception. They improved by 4.7 points (92.1 to 96.8), making them the only age group with substantial gains in financial wellbeing.
Both their capabilities and feelings improved dramatically:
- Resilience: +8.8 points
- Subjective wellbeing: +7.9 points
This cohort moved from below-average to near-average financial wellbeing, bucking the downward trend seen in most other groups. We don't know with certainty why this particular group has enjoyed such a significant improvement in financial wellbeing, and will be examining in due course some of the factors that might underpin it. For example, might it be that the rollout of extended free childcare - 30 hours from September 2025 - has eased the financial constraints acting upon this particular group of individuals?
Whatever the cause, the divergence between 25-34 year olds (improving) and 35-44 year olds (sharply declining) suggests that financial wellbeing falls off a cliff once people move into their mid-thirties and accumulate major life responsibilities.
For the second consecutive year, retirees report higher financial wellbeing than full-time workers - and the gap is growing:
- Retirees improved: 113.5 to 115.1 (+1.6 points)
- Full-time workers declined: 100.5 to 99.6 (-0.9 points)
The gap widened from 13.0 in 2024 to 15.5 points in 2025.
This pattern holds even when we look at age-specific data. The 65-74 and 75+ age groups both saw improvements in their FinWell Index scores (0.5 and 2.6 points respectively), while working-age groups largely declined.
Similar to 2024, wellbeing rises with income, but not particularly sharply or steadily.
In 2024 those earning between £10,000 and £30,000 all had broadly average levels of financial wellbeing, and this continues in 2025, albeit with a slight drop compared to the previous year.
Once again, an income above £30,000 is linked with above-average financial wellbeing, and the gains of earning significantly more than £30,000 aren't as substantial as you'd expect.
Unemployment
The unemployed experienced one of the largest declines in financial wellbeing, dropping 6.1 points from 81.2 to 75.1. They now have the lowest FinWell Index score of any employment group - and the gap between them and other groups is widening. Notably, the unemployed's scores on the financial resilience and subjective financial wellbeing sub-indices have deteriorated significantly, by -6.3 points and -7.5 points, respectively.
Students
Students also struggled this year, declining 2.3 points from an already-low baseline of 87.0 to 84.7. Their resilience fell by 6.2 points, suggesting they're finding it harder to cope with financial shocks or manage their limited resources.
Single parents
Although single parents experienced a more modest decline in financial wellbeing from 85.8 to 84.2, they were one of the few groups who also reported worse subjective financial wellbeing. The only index component that increased for single parents was financial control, rising from 90.8 to 92.3. Resilience, financial management, financial limitations on wellbeing and subjective financial wellbeing all declined.
Knowing how certain characteristics and circumstances can impact financial wellbeing helps employers figure out where to get started when developing a financial wellbeing strategy.
Here are three important takeaways from this data:
A clear understanding of your workforce helps to pinpoint your organisation's unique challenges and opportunities. For example, if you have a large number of employees who earn below £20,000 per year, a focus on tools to build financial resilience should be a priority area. One clear example of this is a payroll savings proposition. The ability to easily and automatically put money aside into savings each payday can be a powerful tool to help build financial resilience.
Perhaps one of the more encouraging results from this index, the way people feel about their money - and how it impacts their quality of life - isn't as strongly connected to how much they earn as we might expect. This means that anything employers can do to build a positive relationship with money has the potential to impact the widest range of employees.
Small changes can have a big impact. For example, consider the role of predictability when it comes to having a positive relationship with money. Predictable schedules lead to predictable earnings, which make it easier to give people a sense of control and empowerment. Another area to consider is predictable paydays. In some sectors it's common to pay on a 4-weekly schedule rather than monthly, which can make it much harder to manage recurring monthly expenses. If this resonates, consider what it would take to switch from 4-weekly to monthly pay.
One of the reasons why women report lower financial wellbeing than men is because they are disproportionately likely to be looking after dependent children, working part-time hours, and working in sectors with lower pay. This is one example of how intersecting challenges are reflected in the headline results that women have lower financial wellbeing. To address this, think about policies and benefits designed to support working parents, ranging from flexible working (which supports people to manage childcare cost-effectively) through to direct support for childcare costs.
The FinWell Index 2025 shows a small downward overall trend, from a baseline of 100 in 2024 to 99.1 in 2025. But within that overall trend are some worrying ongoing patterns.
One of the most concerning is that the biggest drops focus on some of the most important elements of financial capability. For example, we saw that there was an overall drop of 2.4% in people's abilities to pay for all necessary expenses.
Some of the figures worsen further when we look at specific groups of the UK population. Once again, we are seeing that women's financial wellbeing is significantly worse than men's - and the situation is getting worse not better.
We see that younger people are experiencing much lower levels of financial wellbeing than older people. And that particular groups - single parents, or those who are long-term sick - are particularly hard hit.
In the coming years, we will continue to measure the state of the nation's financial wellbeing. And we will look to address some of the challenges that we have identified over the FinWell Index's first two years.
Whether this is through the work at Stream, which is giving working people more control over their finances. Or the wider work of CogCo, which is helping to identify new ways of improving people's financial capabilities and subjective wellbeing.
In this way, we believe that the FinWell Index can move from an annual measurement of financial wellbeing to something that begins to identify opportunities for supporting and enabling changes that help people to improve their financial wellbeing over time. We believe that all of us have a role to play in this process.
Which is why we invite employers and policy-makers to come on this journey with us, and to commit to measuring the impact of your choices.
We now have a tool to show us whether policies and benefits are helping or harming, and which groups of people are faring best and worst. Getting a deep understanding of financial wellbeing in the UK helps us make decisions - big and small - about where to focus energy and investment, and tells us what else we need to measure.
Talk to us about the positive impact we can have on your teams and your business.
