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The data

What counts as life admin?

The research measured administrative tasks across ten domains of everyday life

Goods & services
Researching deals, contacting customer service, returns, warranties, tracking deliveries
Bills
Managing utilities, insurance & telecoms — paying, reviewing plans, switching, contacting providers
Savings
Reviewing accounts, researching ISAs or investments, opening accounts, making payments into savings
Health
Applying for health benefits, finding doctors, scheduling appointments, filling out health paperwork
Caring for adults
Managing bills, pensions or benefits for an adult relative; their healthcare paperwork; applying for Carer's Allowance
Debt
Researching or applying for loans, managing repayments, communicating with lenders
Childcare
Applying for child benefits, communicating with schools, scheduling appointments, filling out paperwork for children
Tax & income
Filing payslips, declaring income, claiming tax credits, managing tax codes
Retirement
Researching pensions, choosing or managing a pension plan, contacting providers
Gov. benefits
Researching, applying for, and providing documentation for welfare programmes; contacting government offices

Where does the time go?

Average minutes per day spent on admin, across the UK adult population

The emotional cost of admin

Net emotional score per domain — positive emotions minus negative emotions (scale 1–7)

← more negativemore positive →

Who bears the burden?

How admin patterns differ for disadvantaged groups vs. the population average of 59 min/day

GroupDaily admin timeMore likely to doLess likely to do
Poor health+9 min/dayBenefits, HealthSavings, Pension
Low financial wellbeing+13 min/dayBenefits, Debt, BillsSavings, Pension
Low income (<£20k)−7 min/dayBenefitsSavings, Pension, Tax
Older (65+)−21 min/dayBills, RetirementChildcare

Source: Tables A2 & 4 — Martin, Delaney & Doyle (2022)

The research reports an average of 58.8 min/day, which would put the true figure closer to 19 billion hours per year but we have based it on a conservative estimate of ~45 min/day per UK adult, 15 billion hours a year.

Calculated from Everyday Administrative Burdens and Inequality by Lucie Martin, Liam Delaney and Orla Doyle (2022)