personal financial loss due to the virus.

In spite of all the bad things that have happened recently (2020 has not been a good year for us) I am now financially OK - only OK, not rich. But unless there is a massive depression and NHS pensions are clobbered, I can manage.

I was just thinking today how lucky I am not having to worry about bills too much.

Young families are really going to struggle.

I will be ok but 2 of my GC and my daughter have either lost their income or been let go I have no idea how they are going to manage if this lasts for longer than a month or two which of course it will.

We are like Lucky in that we are ok unless they do clobber NHS pensions but, we have 5 children (4 of whom have children) who are living on reduced incomes so no doubt we will help out there.

Additionally, we arent using the car so much or eating out and are shopping much less so are buying less 'random' things.

Many people are going to struggle. People in drawdown pensions, people with sticks and shared ISAs, job losses and all that entails. Many people need this promised government money now but there are no systems to deliver a massive administrative task. The world is going to be a different place post CV.

We have had to stop our drawdown from our private pension. We only moved providers a month ago and we would hav e been so much better putting it in the bank, but hey ho. We are a lot luckier than some as we have a small government pension as well.

I spoke to someone today who said she has no income now and can't wait until June. She's taken a job stacking shelves at Tesco 4 am until 1pm . I'd phoned her to say as soon as she was back to work (home hairdresser) to let me know. Husband of many years gone off with someone else.

I just had an email about someone who has lost £800 a month income overnight (self-employed) and can't now pay his rent, which is due tomorrow. He's afraid that he'll never be able to make up the losses he's incurred and will spend the rest of his life in debt. His fear of homelessness in the future is well founded I'm afraid.

Many people live lives where they are 'just about' managing and for whom debt is anathema. I do fear for people's mental health in these troubled times.

We have no income at all now .
I don’t think we will ever get out of debt .

It's going to affect many and I really feel for all of them. How they're all going to manage I don't honestly know.
At least I can help my family if they come unstuck in any way. Many of us have a regular income called a state pension, millions don't.

I'm lucky to not have a mortgage (paid off) but I haven't got any savings. I'm working (part-time) as a Warden of a sheltered housing scheme, but the other little job I started a few weeks ago has finished for now (delivering meals to a school), even though it's a Special Needs school, it has closed for the foreseeable future. I'm classed as self-employed there, but can't claim anything because I started only recently. Husband is off as his workplace is closed. He'll get 80% of his wages, but that won't be a lot - his wage is usually enhanced by working on Saturdays.

We'll manage, but a lot of people will struggle.

I suspect those of us with company pensions will find that the regular annual increases will not be forth coming for several years.

We are lucky with several pensions and we also qualify for state pensions. We have also paid off our mortgage. Our drawdown has taken a hammering I am sure but we are continuing to take the same amount out and we will live with the consequences further down the line. One daughter has come home and has no income at moment so we are helping out and we can see that we will need to help out our other children and grandchildren. We will all survive and our income will never recover from this but so much better off than many people. Strangely enough our company pensions have given us an increase in line with inflation. My heart bleeds for so many people who have nothing.

We are just trying to budget as best we can. There are alot of people much worse off than us. We grow some food, but have planted a bit more this year, but a good crop is not guaranteed. We had a very poor vegetable crop last year. We never really eat takeaways. When/if things go back to normal (whatever that is) sadly I think many places will struggle. People will not have the money to spend. I also would warn folks to put their normal rent money by, I don't know if, after this is over, the landlords will want the 3 or 5 months rent. I wouldn't be going mad spending right now.

Severe austerity will be with us for at least a decade. So many people will have experienced so many financial losses and many small business's will not survive to re-open. Worrying at this present time is, think within a few years the Spring and Summer 2020 could be looked back upon as the good times.
It really will need a government whose main political interests will be social welfare not one whose interests are to protect the millionaires/billionaires.
Far better than clapping, etc. each Thursday, those who really want to thank NHS and other key workers should do so by never ever voting tory again.

Most of us pensioners are shielded from the financial worry of all this. In that, the majority of us are fortunate indeed.

It is heartbreaking to think what financial worries some households must be going through with young children.

Or small business owners who have had to shut up shop, worrying if there will even be a business to reopen after all this.

This is a major headache throughout the world.

Surely "Austerity" would be the worst thing we could do. It would kill any growth we could get going. The circumstances will be austere for most without government Austerity added to it. I hope it will be more like the American New Deal of the 1930s or the period after the war here.

I’m 67, I am a beauty therapist, obviously not working at the moment. Maybe now is the time to retire? I’ve just been in Aus visiting our DD so my clients are used to not seeing me. They do keep phoning!

Fennel you say you have lost a third of your income. Is that working income or the value of your investments.

Thank god we don’t owe anything, apart from the extra airfares we have just have to find. We, personally, are so lucky.

Our investments have gone down considerably but as we don’t need the money at the moment that’s fairly immaterial. Historically it has been shown they will recover.

I know that very many people who live on a shoestring use credit cards to get by and will be left in a situation where they have maxxed out their cards and think they have no options left to them, but to use payday loan companies.

If you know anyone in this situation, please, please advise them to visit Step Change, CAP or the Citizen's Advice before taking this step as it is almost impossible to manage the debt that will accrue.

As my OH is a self employed builder we would have been in extreme trouble as obviously work dried up very quickly. Because we have only just got past the dry spell of Christmas and January any savings which we usually try to build up for that time were gone.
BUT I received an inheritance from my Mothers estate just the week before "lockdown". I was able to pay off outstanding bills, help out my daughter and it has left us able to sit this out. Bless my darling Mother!
I really feel for others who are struggling, I dont know how we would have coped.

Hazbeen doesn’t your husband qualify for the 80% help from the government?

Probably will yes but that will be a long time coming. We would never have made till June which is the earliest it looks like being paid.

I was paid last month, and in theory was paid this month BUT can’t seem to access my salary from overseas. So I’m wondering if in fact, I haven’t had the credit to my overseas account.

I’m ok at the moment but with no other form of income, will be in trouble in a couple of months.

If this had happened while I had my business, there is no way I could have survived. Awful though it is now I feel lucky that I am on a pension and have a few savings. Ten years ago I think I would have been breaking down with the stress.
My neighbour is still working. I think she works in the care field in some way and she is very worried. There isn't really much you can say.

There is a school of thought that says the cure is worse than the illness and we should look more closely at what we are doing. Sweden is doing things differently I wonder how things will turn out there.