Smoking tobacco is an expensive and health-harming habit, illustrated by these statistics:
It’s easy to understand then, the impact on individual and household finances caused by ill-health and being off work or chronic ill-health and not being able to work at all. In fact, recent research by ASH Scotland shows that people who smoke tobacco earn nearly £100-per-week less on average compared to people who have never smoked and that over 31,000 people in Scotland are out of work primarily because they smoke.
Financial Cost of Smoking Tobacco
Let’s look at the actual financial cost of smoking, illustrated in the table below.
Product
Annual cost at 12 cigs per day
Annual cost at 20 cigs per day
Average pack of 20 (£11.39, ONS 2021)
£2,495
£4,160
Pack of 20 illicit cigs @ £5.70
£1,250
£2,080
30g rolling tobacco (approx. 50 cigs) @£15.25
£1,336
£2,227
So, even for the average person who smokes, smoking 12 cigarettes-a-day, the cost is nearly £50-per-week. If you smoke 20-a-day, that’s £80-per-week. These figures are from 2021 and will be more now due to excise duty increases.
Some people who smoke will buy illegal cigarettes and tobacco to save money. As you can see these are roughly half the price of legally sold cigarettes. Illegal cigarettes are often imported from countries where there is no quality control, and these products may contain higher levels of nicotine or other toxic chemicals that are produced when you ignite tobacco. Even at this price the average smoker will spend £24-per-week.
Other people will roll their own cigarettes to save money, but again for the average person who smokes this will cost nearly £26-per-week.
So, especially if an individual or household experiences low wages and at least one member of the household smokes, the cost of smoking will take up a significant part of their disposable income.
Vaping (e-cigarettes) is cheaper than smoking tobacco. Cancer Research UK reckon that a person could vape for a whole year for around £600. That’s significantly cheaper than the tobacco alternatives above. Vaping is also less harmful than smoking any amount of tobacco. In fact, there is no safe level of smoking tobacco. Some people have also used vaping to successfully quit smoking tobacco altogether. Important to note though that vaping is not harmless and has not been around long enough to understand what the long-term effects might be.
Most people will have insurance costs as part of their out goings. The following insurances will cost more if you are a smoker:
Home insurance is affected by the threat to the property by fire.
Your car insurance can be affected if you are a smoker. For example, if you had an accident whilst smoking, this might invalidate your claim. Also, you are likely to get less for your car when trying to sell it or trade it in. this could be by as much as £2,000. Some dealers may even refuse to buy it as removing the smell from upholstery is expensive.
The good news is that most insurance companies will consider you to be a non-smoker if you have quit for at least 12 months, with a resultant reduction in premiums.
Smoking and Poverty
Although there are many factors that might lead to a person or household living below the poverty-line (60% of median net income), there is no doubt that for some people, smoking is an important contributing factor. The people who can least afford it spend a greater proportion of their income on tobacco. For those on low incomes this is approaching a third of their entire income. Households with two or more smokers in the lowest income group spend nearly three-quarters of their income on tobacco.
When smoking expenditure is included in poverty calculations, 63,081 smoking households fall below the poverty line. That means all these households would not be considered as being below the poverty-line if all the people who smoke managed to quit.
Another impact of smoking tobacco is on earnings. People who smoke tend to earn less on average compared to never-smokers. Whilst the average earnings in Scotland in 2022 was £31,480, people who smoke earned £26,355, that’s nearly £100-per-week less. Also, there are over 30,000 people in Scotland out of work primarily because they smoke. For some people who smoke, facing budgeting and/or debt issues, stopping smoking could make a significant difference to their ability to resolve their financial problems. A successful quit comes with the additional advantages of improved physical and mental health and the opportunity to earn more at work.
Getting Help to Quit
Getting support to quit is highly recommended as it doubles your chance of achieving a successful quit, and if you use Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) at the same time this doubles your chances again. Quit Your Way Scotland is an NHS advice and support service for anyone trying to stop smoking in Scotland.
You can contact Quit Your Way Scotland for free by phoning a Quit Your Way Scotland advisor on 0800 84 84 84 The helpline services are open Monday to Friday, 9.00am to 5.00pm
Quit Your Way also provide local services which can include the following activities.
To find out more about what is available locally, direct people to: https://www.nhsinform.scot/healthy-living/stopping-smoking/help-to-stop/local-help-to-stop-smoking/
Your local community pharmacy provides a free stop smoking service. The service is:
The pharmacist will explain the medications available to help you quit smoking such as patches, nasal sprays, or inhalators. They’ll advise on the pros and cons of each to help you decide which option is the best for you. They are then provided free on prescription. Your GP can also prescribe NRT.
NRT works by gradually reducing your body’s addiction to nicotine by using a low dose of clean and therapeutic nicotine. NRT should reduce cravings for nicotine and other withdrawal symptoms and makes it less likely that people will relapse back into smoking.
NRT can be given free on prescription if you use Community Pharmacies for support or your GP. They can also be bought over the counter.
Quit Your Way Services are effective at helping people quit and NRT and support can help. People are 3-4 times more likely to have a successful quit if they use support and NRT at the same time.
ASH Scotland provides a free e-learning module, “Raising the issue of smoking in a money advice setting”. This can be accessed at https://www.ashscotlandmoodle.org.uk/ and you can find more information on the ASH Scotland information pages.
Contact Jim O’Rorke at jororke@ashscotland.org.uk for more information.
