Cost of living crisis laid bare as almost half of Britons ‘have under £25 left at end of week’
Almost half of Britons have less than £25 in spare cash at the weekend, as the extent of the ongoing cost of living crisis is revealed in a new survey.
The research shows the majority of adults in the UK are having to make tough choices, with almost two-thirds (63 per cent) having to cut back on basic needs such as food and heating.
The newly launched Cost of Living Action (COLA) group said the results revealed how the “cost of living crisis has not gone away” but is “getting worse”.
It calls on the government to take steps to “end the cost of living crisis and ensure it never happens again”.
Labor MP Yuan Yang, a co-convener of the Living Standards Coalition, said: “The Cost of Living Action campaign has identified a critical challenge for those of us living in Westminster to tackle: we need a holistic approach to creating growth while tackling the cost of the living crisis. As their campaign correctly describes, this approach requires raising incomes, reducing costs and fairer taxation.”
The survey was conducted by Survation on behalf of and in collaboration with COLA. IndependentThe research found that 40 per cent of Britons have just £100 or less a month for basic needs, while 13 per cent have nothing or have to go into debt.
The survey also found:
- Almost 80 percent say the cost of living crisis has negatively impacted their personal well-being (79 percent) and their feelings about the next 12 months (78 percent).
- Nearly two-fifths (37 percent) were very affected by rising energy bills and food prices.
- Nearly half say it is harder to pay energy bills (51 percent) or afford other basic needs like food, water and clothing (50 percent) than it was five years ago.
Speaking to families in January, Sir Keir Starmer said tackling the cost of living crisis was one of the government’s key priorities this year: “The Labor government is on your side, doing everything we can to ease the cost of living and make life better. The elections we have in 2026 will mean more people start to feel this positive change.”
But the government continues to struggle with declining popularity in the polls as political drama and the high cost of living affect public opinion.
COLA’s research shows that the scale of the problem means it is now the country’s biggest concern. Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of people cite living costs as one of their top three issues; Far beyond this are health (38 percent), migration and asylum (37 percent) and economy (33 percent).
Conor O’Shea, COLA’s campaign coordinator, said: “Millions of people are struggling with sky-high costs and are left in debt or with next to nothing after paying their bills each month. It’s no wonder people are feeling so anxious and angry.
“The government must deliver transformational change that truly responds to the scale of the crisis. This means making basic needs affordable for everyone, ensuring everyone has access to the income they need to live well, and rebalancing the tax system with more and better taxes on wealth.”
The group called on the government to cut energy bills by reducing excess profits and to ensure that wages and benefits rise in line with inflation and are always sufficient to meet basic needs.
It also calls on policymakers to impose higher taxes on wealthy individuals and reduce housing costs through large-scale social housing construction and private sector rent controls.
More than half of those surveyed agreed with all of these recommendations.
Hannah Peaker, deputy director of the New Economics Foundation, said: “At a time when we are reminded of how far some politicians will go to protect the rich, this survey shows just how much most people are suffering the costs of a life crisis. People are still struggling with sky-high energy, food and housing costs, while wages continue to lag behind.”
Earlier this week, the influential think tank the Resolution Foundation said Britain was facing a historic decline in living standards as today’s generation faces the slowest income growth in decades. Poverty in work is a growing problem, with 55 percent of households living in poverty now having at least one working person, a wide-ranging new report has found.
A government spokesman said: “Tackling the cost of living is our number one priority. That’s why we’ve taken action to reduce the cost of living. We’ve delivered a £150 cut on energy bills, a freeze on rail fares for the first time in 30 years, a freeze on prescription charges for the second year in a row, an increase in the national minimum wage and living wage, and the removal of two child benefit caps, which will lift 450,000 children out of poverty by the end of this parliament.”
“Living standards are now higher than in the previous parliament, and real wages have risen more in the first year of this Government than in the first decade of the previous government.”
