Financially desperate Britons are increasingly turning to gambling as a “quick fix” as wealth levels fall to historic lows, a study suggests.

The annual LifeSearch Health, Wealth and Happiness Index compiled by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) fell 11 per cent over the last year to lows not seen since the height of the pandemic.

The wealth index fell to the lowest level since 2013, with 52 per cent of people feeling worse off than they did a year ago.

Almost one in three Britons (29 per cent) have had to raid their savings over the past year to cover rising living costs, one in 12 (8 per cent) have had to ask their families for money and one in 10 (11 per cent) have been forced to take on more debt, a survey for the study found.

The figures show a stark increase in gambling from a year ago, when around a third of people said they had gambled at least once over the past year, spending an average of £43 a month.

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