Britain’s poorest households have suffered a £4,500 hit to their finances since the start of the Covid pandemic, according to a report indicating that those on the lowest incomes have borne the brunt of the cost of living crisis.
Highlighting a dramatic fall in living standards since Boris Johnson’s election landslide four years ago, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) thinktank said soaring costs for energy, food and other basic essentials had hit those most badly off the hardest.
However, NIESR warned the support remained insufficient to overcome the hit to living standards inflicted when the easing of Covid restrictions and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drove up inflation at the fastest rate in four decades.
The thinktank said living standards for the poorest tenth of families, after adjusting for inflation, remained 18% below 2019-20 levels even after accounting for government support – delivering a financial blow worth £4,500 in today’s prices.
“As a proportion of their budget, they spend a lot more on energy, food and housing [than wealthier households], so they took more of the brunt of the shock,” said Adrian Pabst, NIESR’s deputy director for public policy.
NIESR’s news comes after Rishi Sunak claimed in an interview with the BBC on Tuesday that the burden on households was “starting to ease” after a fall in inflation from more than 10% a year ago to 4% in December.
The original article contains 691 words, the summary contains 232 words. Saved 66%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
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Britain’s poorest households have suffered a £4,500 hit to their finances since the start of the Covid pandemic, according to a report indicating that those on the lowest incomes have borne the brunt of the cost of living crisis.
Highlighting a dramatic fall in living standards since Boris Johnson’s election landslide four years ago, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) thinktank said soaring costs for energy, food and other basic essentials had hit those most badly off the hardest.
However, NIESR warned the support remained insufficient to overcome the hit to living standards inflicted when the easing of Covid restrictions and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drove up inflation at the fastest rate in four decades.
The thinktank said living standards for the poorest tenth of families, after adjusting for inflation, remained 18% below 2019-20 levels even after accounting for government support – delivering a financial blow worth £4,500 in today’s prices.
“As a proportion of their budget, they spend a lot more on energy, food and housing [than wealthier households], so they took more of the brunt of the shock,” said Adrian Pabst, NIESR’s deputy director for public policy.
NIESR’s news comes after Rishi Sunak claimed in an interview with the BBC on Tuesday that the burden on households was “starting to ease” after a fall in inflation from more than 10% a year ago to 4% in December.
The original article contains 691 words, the summary contains 232 words. Saved 66%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!