More at risk of poor health outcomes from Brexit after pandemic increases vulnerability

24 Sep 2021 11:53 AM

A new report published recently (22 September 2021) by Public Health Wales highlights Wales’ vulnerability to any negative impacts of Brexit on the nation’s health and wellbeing following the Coronavirus pandemic.  

Building on evidence that the pandemic has had an unequal effect on Welsh society, the study details how, now more than ever, it is important to understand how Brexit and future trade agreements will impact health and wellbeing for those living in, or at risk of poverty. 

Key vulnerabilities identified include:  

• By the end of December 2020, 69 per cent of the UK economy had been negatively affected by Brexit and/or the pandemic 
• In 2019, 61 per cent of goods from Wales were exported to the EU, higher than for the UK overall  
• Between 2014-2020, European structural and investment funding was around four times the UK average, on a per person basis 
• In 2020, approximately one in twelve staff employed in health and social care were non-UK nationals, the majority of which were from the EU. 

The report also draws together evidence on how poverty has affected people in Wales:  

• 180,000 children live in poverty in Wales; seven in ten children in relative income poverty live in working households 
• Wales has one of the highest in-work poverty rates in the UK, with one in seven workers living in poverty 
• Pre-pandemic, a fifth of UK adults were over-indebted or were vulnerable to financial shocks 
• In March 2020, more than a quarter of Welsh households did not have enough savings to cover their regular income for just one month

Click here for the full press release