Around 2.8 million households are worse off now than they were three years ago, according to the latest MoneyMood Survey from Legal & General.

The research shows a real drop in so-called ‘expense cover’, the number of households who say they have some money left after paying bills each month, compared to 2007.

The last three years have clearly taken a toll on the number of households who have spare money after all their regular outgoings are taken into account. In September 2007 six out of 10 households said they had “some money left over after paying bills and debts””. At the end of September this year that had fallen to only half of households (50%). The remaining half of UK households