Working families face risk of sliding into poverty - JRF

Published by 24publishing for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Central Government, Communities, Local Government

Working families face the risk of sliding into poverty due to a cocktail of benefit cuts, stagnating incomes and soaring childcare and transport costs, a major report has warned.

Accoridng to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), the minimum that a couple with two children now needs to earn for an acceptable standard of living is £36,800 – this figure has risen by nearly a third since 2008, twice the rate of inflation.

That figure has been derived from the JRF's Minimum Income Standard for the UK (MIS) which tracks what members of the public think people need to have a socially acceptable standard of living and how much money this means different households (working age people with and without children and pensioners) need to reach this standard.

The research has found a quarter of the UK's population live below the MIS - 3 million more than in 2008.  

It warns that working families with children are being dealt a damaging "triple financial blow" in the recession - with childcare costs becoming families' single biggest weekly outgoing; rising transport costs now making a car an essential and changes to tax credits  increasing earning requirements substantially.

The report warns that single people need to earn £16,400 a year to reach an adequate standard of living, while the figure for a lone parent with one child is £23,900. Pensioner couples need £231.48 a week, which is attainable, the report says, providing they claim all the support they are entitled to.

Julia Unwin, Chief Executive of the JRF, said: "Families have a monumental task trying to earn enough to get by. Parents facing low wages and pressure on their working time have little prospect of finding the extra money they need to meet growing household expenses.

"This year's research shows that a dangerous cocktail of service cuts and stagnating incomes are being keenly felt by parents. Many working people face the risk of sliding into poverty. It illustrates how anti-poverty measures are needed to address not just people’s incomes but also the costs that they face."