More than half of people who identify as part of the LGBTQIA community are worried about their financial future. This is according to Prudential’s latest Financial Wellness Census, which found that 52% of LGBT people claimed so.
The study particularly looked at how people are holding up during the Covid-19 pandemic. To do this, the pollsters compared data from December 2019 and May 2020.
It was found that 25% of LGBT people saw their household income fall by half or more due to the pandemic. More than half (56%) of the 18% unemployed cited Covid-19 as the reason for not being employed.
Overall, 51% said that their financial health was negatively impacted by the pandemic, with women, younger generations, small businesses and gig workers disproportionately impacted.
The poll was done in the US, but the effects of Covid-19 on LGBTQIA people – including Filipinos – have already been documented. Locally, for instance, LGBTQIA gig workers lamented the impact of lockdowns; and how government support often exclude them even if they are just-as-in-need of support.
According to Jamie Kalamarides, president of Prudential Group Insurance, the lack of financial resiliency is a threat to democracy. Workers and their families are “under a tremendous amount of stress,” he said. “Covid-19 was the catalyst that lowered the river and showed the rocks that were the underlying causes – lack of accessibility, lack of emergency savings and lack of a path towards sustainable financial wealth. This lack of financial resiliency is a threat to… democracy because without a path toward the middle class that’s available for everybody, our society is at risk. The solution is not to have individuals and their families try to bootstrap themselves up. It’s about fixing the systemic challenges and problems and barriers that cause inequity… With that, we can all have financial resiliency.”
Six demographics were actually polled, and LGBT people had the highest percentage of respondents (25%) who said their household income had fallen by half or more. Gen Xers were at 22%, Millennials 21%, women 19%, men 14%, and Boomers 8%.
