Low-income families hit by increase in cost of living
A report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has suggested that low income families in the UK are struggling to maintain a minimum standard of living as the cost of living continues to rise. The Foundation forecast that a single person needs to earn £14,400 to maintain a minimum standard of living while a couple with two children need to earn nearly £27,000 a year. This equates to around £7.38 and £7.60 an hour respectively which is well above the minimum wage of £5.80 an hour.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation believes that low income families have been hit disproportionally hard by the increase in the cost of living, having seen the cost of food, travel and council tax rise by well in excess of the consumer prices index. When you also consider that the UK government is looking to reduce the UK's benefit system liabilities going forward it is not difficult to see further issues ahead and further problems for those on low incomes.
The gap between the rich and the low-income members of society has widened dramatically over the last 20 or 30 years and even during this recession, when you might have expected the gap to narrow, this has not been the case.
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