“It’s tough out there”: An online forum listening exercise revealing how people are talking about financial hardship

This latest wave of research from Demos and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation uses online forum conversations to surface insights from people experiencing financial hardship across the UK. Covering over 27,000 posts between March and June 2025, it reveals and explores three key themes; employment struggles, navigating the benefits system, and the impact of the government’s proposed welfare reforms.

The report highlights ongoing challenges such as a tough job market, wage stagnation, and an often-confusing benefits system. People shared experiences of redundancy, long job searches, and stressful dealings with Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment.

The findings also show deep frustration with government reforms and damaging rhetoric around claimants. Online posts demonstrated a clear appetite for more opportunities for public consultation on policy changes. The report offers policymakers an unfiltered view of the challenges facing those at the sharpest edge of the cost-of-living crisis, and why listening to them matters.

This report marks the second wave of 2025 following ‘I feel let down’ and building on four waves of research from 2024 – ‘This system is rigged’, ‘Fight like hell!’, ‘It can’t get any worse’ and ‘I Need Help Now’.