COLCHESTER-based researchers are undertaking a world leading study to help Government leaders understand the impact the pandemic has had on people’s every day lives.

The Institute for Social and Economic Research at the Essex University conducts a huge survey of households in the UK every year.

Since 2009 researchers have spoken with the same 40,000 households once a year to see how their lives are changing.

In March last year the Government asked the team to collect additional data to help understand the effects of the pandemic.

Every month the Colchester-based team speak to the families asking them about the impact Covid-19 has had on them.

Professor Peter Lynn, who leads the team, said the study will give real evidence of the impact.

It will mean the impact the pandemic has had on everything from health and wellbeing, to housing, work, family, exercise, finance, friendships and relationships is explored.

Prof Lynn said: “We will be getting real evidence of how this huge event in our history has changed ordinary people’s lives and how this varies depending on people’s circumstances.

“From this evidence, policy makers - locally as well as nationally - will be able to see what might best help the people of this country.

“Whether this is through more policies to address inequality in education or access to health care or better housing, or support with job seeking, mental health issues or relationship breakdowns.”

Prof Lynn said the impact had been already been seen in the research collected so far.

He added: “We have found out a lot already - how for many of us our mental health suffered during the first lockdown but bounced back over the summer, showing how we are resilient but that our mental health is fragile.

“How some families struggled with home schooling and how this might mean more of the most disadvantaged children in our society will come out of this so much worse than some of their better-off classmates who have computers and books at home and better engaged parents.

“We have seen how many people missed their cancer care appointments in the first lockdown, how single parents in particular lost so much more of their income in the first lockdown than other social groups.

“We have hundreds if not thousands of researchers around the country now working through the data we have collected so far and we know that everything we collect in the coming months will be useful for building up the understanding of what has happened to us during the pandemic and which policies might help the whole country to recover, economically and socially.”

The study is based at the university’s Colchester campus and employs about 40 people.