UK ministers under pressure to ease impact of cost of living crisis
Ministers are coming under growing pressure to intervene to soften the impact of the cost of living crisis amid fresh warnings that millions of low-income households risk sliding into further debt, hunger and poverty.
More than 50 charities have warned that the consequences of driving through a below-inflation benefit pay rise in April will be “unthinkable” for households already struggling to cover soaring food and energy costs and a rise in national insurance.
They urged ministers to scrap plans to uprate all benefits by 3.1% and instead use the spring statement next week to help struggling families by pushing up benefits in line with inflation, which is projected to be running at 7.25% by April.
Meanwhile, the former prime minister Gordon Brown warned on Wednesday that anxiety over the cost of living crisis had replaced the pandemic as the biggest source of worry in the public’s minds.
“The cost of living crisis has really taken over from the Covid crisis as a real catastrophe for people. What you can see from the polling is that the cost of living crisis is by far the biggest priority for people,” Brown said.
The government is understood to be reluctant to commit to extra spending but is said to acknowledge concerns over the critical “starve or freeze” choices faced by low-income families as energy and food bills soar way beyond incomes.
A letter signed by charities including the Child Poverty Action Group, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), Citizens Advice and Save the Children UK warned that a 3.1% uprating would amount to the second real-terms cut to universal credit in six months, after the withdrawal in October of the £20-a-week Covid uplift.
“A second cut to benefits in six months is unthinkable. The government
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