Poverty warning after cost of living ‘rockets’

The claims are made today in a study by York charity the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) into minimum income standards, which tracked what the public believes is needed for a socially acceptable standard of living.

It found the minimum a couple with two children now need to earn for an acceptable standard of living is £36,800 – an increase of nearly a third since 2008, twice the rate of inflation.

Single people need to earn £16,400 a year to reach an adequate standard of living, while the figure for a lone parent with one child is £23,900. The research has found a quarter of the UK’s population live below this minimum standard – three million more than in 2008.

Julia Unwin, chief executive of the JRF, said: “Parents facing low wages and pressure on their working time have little prospect of finding the extra money they need to meet growing household expenses.

“This year’s research shows that a dangerous cocktail of service cuts and stagnating incomes are being keenly felt by parents. Many working people face the risk of sliding into poverty. Anti-poverty measures are needed to address not just people’s incomes but also the costs that they face.”

The report finds minimum childcare costs have risen by nearly a third, transport prices have also increased with bus travel doubling in price since the late 1990s, while cuts to tax credits have increased earning requirements substantially, cancelling out the benefit of higher income tax thresholds.