New polling commissioned by PLMR has found that over 11% of the UK public believe that the lockdown has already had an impact on their mental health, and over 7% think they are only able to abide by the current measures for 2 weeks or less. The findings were included in the Evening Standard this morning discussing a proposal to feed the “hunger for hope” by mapping out a clear route to prosperity.

Conducted by Censuswide, the poll asked: “How much longer do you think you are able to continue to abide by the current government lockdown rules before if starts having a negative impact on your mental health, if at all?” Most respondents (14%) said that they were able to continue for 6-7 weeks, followed by 4-5 weeks (13%) and 3 weeks (10%). Just over 6% of those surveyed believe that they could remain unaffected over the next fortnight and only 2% felt they could abide by the lockdown rules for over 7 weeks.

This comes after the government’s announcement on how to maintain mental health and wellbeing during covid-19 last month, and further NHS guidelines on their top 10 tips to deal with coronavirus worries.

Commenting on the findings, Kevin Craig, CEO & Founder of PLMR, said today:

“The timings on when to lift the lockdown measures is the most important political decision facing this Government and will have huge ramifications on the mental wellbeing of our country.”

“These findings show that mental health is taking a hit and there are further complications on the horizon if this lasts for a prolonged period. PLMR is contributing to the debate through polling of the British public on the key issues related to the crisis, we hope these insights will be useful for policy-makers, the media and our clients to understand and navigate this difficult period.”

You can read the full findings here. 

The research was conducted by Censuswide, with 1,001 respondents aged 16+ in UK between 22.04.2020-23.04.2020. The survey was conducted from a nationally representative sample of UK adults. Quotas were applied to nationally representative proportions for age, gender and region. Censuswide abide by and employ members of the Market Research Society which is based on the ESOMAR principles.