Survey: what will Americans spend federal financial assistance for victims of coronavirus?

There is a serious crisis in the USA, since the need to combat the spread of coronavirus has led to a significant part of production stopping, which negatively affected the economy. Writes about it GOBankingRates.

Photo: Shutterstock

In industries where you can work from home, a happy minority is involved, while a huge part of the country remains in a state of economic uncertainty. Congress is already negotiating a large stimulus package that includes direct cash payments of $ 1200 per person or $ 2400 for couples.

But what exactly will people do with payment from the government? This question was asked by approximately 1100 Americans in a survey conducted by GOBankingRates. The results show that so many Americans are not financially prepared for what is coming.

Main results

More than 40% of respondents would spend any monetary incentives on products and other needs.

About one in four Americans has no emergency savings, with roughly the same proportion of respondents holding three weeks or less.

Americans do not support efforts to save big business. Six out of 10 respondents said the government should not help large businesses fight coronavirus.

Less than 40% of still working respondents can perform their duties from home.

About two-thirds of those surveyed said that the crisis had already affected them financially or that they expected it.

Americans plan to cover the purchase of the most necessary with money from the government

The vast majority of Americans replied that they would use a check from the authorities to meet basic needs.

About 2 out of 5 respondents said they would spend money on groceries and other basic necessities. Along with the two following most common answers, make a contribution to the emergency fund and deal with shrinking hours or getting fired. This means that almost 3 out of 4 respondents were primarily interested in meeting their immediate needs or strengthening the stability of their financial situation.

On the subject: Work during a pandemic: companies that hire employees despite coronavirus

There was also another group of responses that showed that many people think about others at this critical time. Just over 5% will send money to family and friends, and almost 7% of the funds will be directed to support local businesses.

Nearly 4% of respondents would try to take advantage of the sudden drop in the market to buy shares at reduced prices. A deeper immersion in this group shows an interesting division by gender. Although the vast majority of men and women were not going to buy stocks, for men this plan was much more likely than for women. Only 2,23% of women gave such an answer, compared with 5,96% of men, showing that men are almost three times more likely to see the current crisis as an opportunity to invest in the future.

However, they do not think that the government should help big business. The direct impact of coronavirus on working Americans is serious and difficult, but large corporations also feel it.

59,95% of respondents do not approve of the rescue of large enterprises during the current crisis, against 40,05% who approve of this step.

Men, compared with women, were more likely to have large companies receive some kind of financial assistance: more than 55% of them said they did not approve of this plan, compared with almost 64% of women who said the same thing.

Coronavirus has financial impact on Americans

Approximately 2 out of 3 Americans (36%) replied that they had already felt the financial consequences of the pandemic or expected that they would soon feel (28%).

Just over a third of Americans (36%) have not yet been financially affected by the pandemic.

To withstand the onslaught of unforeseen situations, you must always have a fund for emergency situations. The past few weeks have clearly demonstrated why maintaining a cash reserve is so important. Unfortunately, for many people, the reality of their inability to save quickly turned into an inevitable problem.

Almost one in four Americans (24,98%) said that he did not have emergency savings funds. In addition, almost one in four (23,19%) reported that he had savings, but they only lasted one to three weeks. In general, this means that approximately half of the people participating in the survey had less than a month of expenses covered by their extraordinary savings.

19% said their savings would last for 2 months, 14,27% for 3-6 months, 4,73% for 6-11 months and 13,83% of Americans were convinced that they had enough savings to live on more than a year.

The working life of Americans was seriously disrupted

Suddenly being unemployed for a long period is one of the main reasons in case of which you should have savings. But for such a large country as the United States, a massive stoppage and closure of production transfer the national economy to a truly uncharted territory.

Although the ability to work from home could previously be seen as extra income, it has become a critical aspect of employment over the past few weeks.

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But, unfortunately, only a few lucky ones work in companies offering such luxury. About 4 out of 10 respondents answered that they did not have the opportunity to work at home - all the more worrying, given that one third of the respondents answered: they are retired or unemployed. Only a quarter of respondents said they could work from home.

The question of who has access to paid sick leave is causing the same alarming result.

Almost 6 out of 10 respondents were not able to take paid sick leave, which means that the recovery time after COVID-19 can cause a devastating financial blow to a significant part of the United States. Companies that have adopted the remote work policy in recent years have made incredibly reasonable infrastructure investments.

The impact of coronavirus on personal finances can be massive

The current pandemic suddenly and unexpectedly led the United States to a crisis that few could think of. The results of this survey show that many are already experiencing serious consequences in their personal lives and financial situation. The low-wage hourly workers who make up the vast majority of Americans are now facing a situation where they cannot work and earn income. Many of them tolerate this without the extraordinary savings that may be so important during such a period.

No matter how the Americans plan to spend financial support and whatever form it ultimately takes, one thing is clear: so many people need help. And if you become one of the few lucky people who either escaped the serious economic consequences or prepared well for a pandemic, you can donate to a wide range of groups offering services that should become especially important in the coming weeks and months:

• Direct relief
• Feeding america
• No kid hungry
• The cdc foundation
• UNICEF

And there are many other groups working hard to help combat this crisis.

Read also on ForumDaily:

Helping businesses in New York in the COVID-19 epidemic: three useful programs

Work during a pandemic: companies that hire employees despite the crisis

Scientists explain why men die more often from coronavirus than women

Lowe's hires 30 new employees due to coronavirus

Scientists: the coronavirus vaccine will be with high protection and long-lasting effect

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