Claimants are facing the biggest cut in the value of their benefits for 50 years according to the Joseph Rowntree Trust (JRF). The fall is due to the government’s decision to only uprate benefits by 3.1%, in spite of the fact that inflation is projected to be 7.1% by the end of this month. We’re asking readers to tell us how the increasing cost of living is affecting you.
The increase in benefits in April each year is based on the rate of inflation the previous September. But this year it means that the uprating figure is based on the rate of inflation before the cost of living crisis took hold. JRF say that benefits were already at historically low levels and that this new real-terms cut will push an additional 600,000 people into poverty.
Worse may be to come, with predictions that inflation will hit 9% later this year, driven by further rises in energy prices.
Peter Matejic, Deputy Director for Evidence & Impact at JRF said:
“With living costs predicted to rise further this year, it is difficult to comprehend the logic behind a choice not to act to protect the value of benefits, thereby imposing the single biggest benefit cut of its kind in fifty years. The government has chosen to weaken the incomes of the poorest at the worst possible moment.
“A decade of cuts and freezes to benefits have left many people in our society in increasingly desperate situations, struggling to afford food, energy and basic hygiene products. Without urgent action from the government, the stark reality is that the situation could get much worse. The government must, at a minimum, ensure that benefit rises match the real rise in living costs as an immediate first step to protect people from hardship. Beyond this, the government needs to further strengthen our social security system, which was already woefully inadequate even before the cost of essentials began to shoot up.”
How is the increasing cost of living affecting you? Let us know in the comments section below.
