As with last month and the month before, a modest fall in the overall index (-1.0 ) can be explained by a more severe decline in household finance measures, which have hit yet another all-time low.

Across other measures, the story is less dramatic. Worker perceptions of retrospective business activity saw a minor bump, increasing to 111.9 (+1.1 ), but – with higher energy bills giving consumers greater incentive to tighten their belts – outlook has fallen to 121.0 (-2.2.). Both metrics remain positive.

Similarly, house value metrics among the nation’s homeowners for the short term saw mild improvement (+0.9, rising to 133.5 ), while outlook got mildly worse (-1.0, falling to 137.4 ).

Job security metrics remained broadly stagnant, increasing from 93.5 to 94.1 (+0.6 ) for the past 30 days and falling from 120.8 to 120.3 (-0.5 ) for the next 12 months.  

In another of a series of record lows for the metric, short-term household finance measures (past 30 days) dropped by 6 points to 56.7. The 12-month outlook also hit an all-time low, inching downwards from 49.1 to 48.3.

Darren Yaxley, head of reputation research at YouGov, said: “With the cost-of-living crisis continuing to rumble on, this data suggests that, perhaps unsurprisingly, consumers’ household finances are bearing the brunt.

“While the overall Consumer Confidence Index has fallen – a 1pt drop since March, but a 7.6pt fall since this time last year – our retrospective household finance measure has seen a similar drop over the course of just one month, with the April figure down 6pts since March and a massive 57pts since April 2021. 

He concluded: “Other metrics such as house value, job security and business activity remain stable for the time being, but it remains to be seen whether these will experience a similar freefall as the country continues to feel the squeeze.”