Ministers ordered to find new ‘non-fiscal’ ways to combat cost of living

theguardian.com:

Cabinet ministers have been ordered to come up with new “non-fiscal” ways to combat the cost of living, in a tacit acknowledgment that the government’s spring statement failed to match the enormity of the crisis.

Boris Johnson said the government would renew efforts to promote schemes with low take-up, including tax-free childcare of about £2,000 a year that about 1.3m households are yet to claim.

About 850,000 eligible households are also not claiming pension credit, which can be worth over £3,300 a year.

But Labour said the government needed to go further and that it was now time for an emergency budget to announce new help for struggling families. In a new analysis, the party found that families will fork out an extra £10bn on petrol, compared with just this time last year.

Labour’s shadow transport secretary, Louise Haigh, said: “This is a savage extra cost for working people. The Conservative government needs to set out an emergency budget to tackle its cost of living crisis – and support Labour’s call to put money back in the pockets of working people.”

The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has been firm with departments that there is limited possibility of major further spending.

Almost 90% of British households reported an increase in their cost of living last month as they were hit by escalating fuel, food and borrowing costs, according to the Office for National Statistics. It said a quarter of all those in its survey were struggling to pay their bills and 17% had turned to loans or borrowing on credit cards to make ends meet.

Sunak, who announced a 5p fuel duty cut as well as raising the limit on the national insurance payment threshold, admitted at his statement last month that households would face the biggest cut in their