US families facing financial issues during COVID-19

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - Around 61% of US households with children report facing serious financial problems during the coronavirus outbreak, according to a survey released Wednesday.

Issues include keeping up with children’s education, depleting savings, paying credit card bills and other debt, and affording medical care, according to a joint poll by National Public Radio, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Most of the problems were among Black and Latino households with children, which have annual incomes below $100,000, and households with children that have gone through job or wage losses since the start of the pandemic.

"Serious financial problems are reported by large majorities of Latino (86%) and Black (66%) households with children, as well as about half (51%) of white households with children," the study said. "In addition, about three in four (74%) households with children that have annual incomes below $100,000 report facing serious financial problems during the coronavirus outbreak.”

The Impact of Coronavirus on Households with Children poll was conducted July 1 - Aug. 3 with 3,454 adults aged 18 or older, including 1,000 in households who are living with children under the age of 18.

The US has recorded more than 7.2 million cases of COVID-19 and 206,000 deaths to date, according to Johns Hopkins University.