LONDON, UK – Recent figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that people in the UK spend more per week on chocolate, coffee and mobile phone charges than they would on life insurance.
Life insurance comparison website Compare Cover has analysed the latest Office of National Statistics Family Spending data and found that on average Brits spend more on takeaways, mobile phone subscriptions and pets than they would on insuring their lives.
It can cost as little as £5 a month for life insurance, that’s around £1.25 per week, yet on average in 2015/16 the UK population spent £45.10 a week on restaurants and hotels, £3.40 a week on satellite subscriptions, £2.80 a week on cigarettes and £1.90 a week on chocolate.
Mike Preston, Business Development Director at Compare Cover, said: “Compare Cover is a life insurance comparison website so we decided to compare the average weekly spend for a UK family with the cost of life insurance.
The results make really interesting reading – for instance, in the UK we spend nearly as much on takeaways per week (£4.70), as it could cost someone per month (£5), to protect their family should the worst happen.
“At Compare Cover, we realise that talking about what financial provisions are in place should someone pass away isn’t the most attractive subject, but when you compare that we spend £1.40 per week on tea and coffee and that it would cost around the same to safeguard our families’ future, we think it’s an important subject to highlight.”
The ONS figures show that for the first time in a decade the spend on alcoholic drinks and tobacco dropped by a third to £11.40. £7.80 of that was on alcoholic drinks, of which 42% was on wine. £3.60 is spent per week on tobacco, with £2.80 of that being on cigarettes.
The average Brit also spends £7.00 per week on mobile phone charges, £4.60 per week on pets, 70 pence per week on going to the cinema and 80 pence per week on stationery.
Londoners spend the most per week at £652.40, while those in the North East spend the least at £423.50.
Data from the three last financial years show that Scots spend the most on alcohol, paying out on average £8.90 a week, and that the smoking spend varies between the nations.
England spends £2.90 on cigarettes per week, Wales pays out £3, Scotland spends £4.90 per week, while Northern Ireland pays out £6.60 per week on smoking.
