During this sustained and dramatic loss of income because of COVID-19, households are employing a range of financial coping strategies to stay afloat. In this brief we highlight the strategies that households have used most, how impactful they have been, and how their use has changed over time.

Low- and moderate-income households have long relied on various financial coping strategies to get by, but the extreme uncertainty and scale of the COVID-19 economic recession will test these households like never before. The impact of these households’ coping strategies will have lingering effects on businesses that go unpaid as well as on the workforce. As the economy struggles to recover, the support of policymakers, financial services providers, and private sector companies will be critical in building financial resilience through this crisis and beyond.