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Over a third of Britons would only last 11 days if they were ever made redundant.

New research from Yorkshire Building Society has revealed that the majority of Britons are living at a limit, with the average person having savings that would only last 52 days if they were unable to work.

And worryingly, nine out of ten of people have no personal income protection in place and if unable to work, 68% either do not know how they would survive or have unrealistic expectations of how they would continue to meet their daily expenditure.

36% of Brits would only be able to last 11 days, with less than £500 in accessible savings. The worst affected groups are women, divorcees, and those under 44 years old. The Society's analysis shows that the average monthly outgoings are £1,445 while the average accessible savings are £2,474.

Almost one in five of those asked said they would try and manage on state benefit allowances if they found themselves out of work. However, as average weekly outgoings of respondents equalled £333.56, this leaves a weekly shortfall of £258.16, as the current state benefit stands at only £75.40.

Yorkshire found that one in 20 of the respondents think they would look into selling their home if they needed to access money quickly. But the mutual says in a virtually stagnant housing market people cannot rely on being able to sell or rent their home in order to release the equity.

Tanya Jackson, corporate affairs manager at Yorkshire Building Society, says: "In the current economic climate this research paints an extremely alarming picture for those consumers without any protection products in place.

"It is extremely worrying to see that many Britons are ‘living on the edge' and we therefore urge consumers to take a look at their protection needs in order to assess how they would cope financially if they were taken ill and whether they would benefit from the security that a protection scheme provides."

These tight times are also reflected in some recent statistics from LV. It found that more and more families are choosing to stay in the UK for their summer holidays this year.

The insurer found that seven out of ten parents are concerned about their personal financial situation, and more than half of all adults are opting to stay in the UK for their holidays this year, citing the economic downturn for their British break.

Of course, the whole reason for the economic downturn in the UK began with the sub prime mortgage crisis in the USA, which led to a chain reaction round the world. The President of the United States tried to explain what had happened in the best way he could.

At a Republican fundraising meeting in Houston, Texas, George Bush told guests the reason for the crunch. He says: “There's no question about it. Wall Street got drunk - it got drunk and now it's got a hangover.

“The question is how long will it sober up and not try to do all these fancy financial instruments?”

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