Punishing price of essentials as Brits experience ‘comfort crunch’ | World | News
Millions of challenging family, increasing energy bills and daily costs are experiencing a ‘comfort crisis’ because they eat almost half of their disposable income.
A study by the Solution Foundation reveals that low and medium -income households are forced to direct the earnings of the earnings to the foundations such as food, clothing, transportation and public services, and forced to leave less for holidays, food and other life tastes.
The biggest criminal is energy costs that are really 150% higher than 2000.
The report emphasizes that naked needs swallow 49% of the budgets that are no longer aligned by 42 percent of basic expenditures in 2002 in the poorest half of the working -age households.
Among the better families, the increase-was more modest to reveal how the poorest of 37-41% was the most affected.
Although the price of some foundations has fallen – the costs of the costs fell by 37% because the financial collapse and food were 11% cheaper than the OECD average – gas and electricity costs increased.
Energy prices doubled between 2000 and 2019, and then increased by 71% with the cost of life crisis. The invoices reached the summit at £ 2,051 in 2023 – many households that use less than £ 1,200 only four years ago.
According to the study financed by JPMorgan Chase, the result has been a dramatic increase in energy debt, which has risen to £ $ 3.9 billion more than twice as much since 2019.
The Foundation is now inviting ministers to bring a ‘social tariff’ on gas and electricity, which offers automatic discounts based on income and use to the families who fight.
The proposal will offer a 10% discount to the poorest households in the UK and Wales-this year’s winter fuel payments, but much more targeted will cost £ 1.6 billion.
Then, if prices rise again, the blanket can be scaled if the blanket provides a more efficient and fair alternative to the subsidies of £ 37 billion in subsidies given during the last crisis.
Lalitha Try, the economist of the Solution Foundation, said, “The poorest half of the working age families in the UK is on the foundation on foundations such as food, gasoline, public bills and clothes.
“This has created a ‘comfort crisis’ because families are less for more fun things such as eating outside, leisure activities and holidays.
“This ‘comfort crisis’ was realized despite the cost of keeping some foundations low. In the UK, food is still cheap compared to international standards and the cost of clothing has fallen in a third.
“The great exception was energy costs, which gradually rises in the 2000s and 2010s and later rises much faster during the cost of life crisis.
“Ministers can protect their households better than these energy price prints by providing a reduction to low -income ones that go beyond the benefits of vehicle test.
