The cost of living in Britain has risen four times faster than our pay in the past five years: Price of gas has risen by 52% & electricity by 32%. Car insurance has risen by 67% in this period. Energy prices are expected to rise further due to £150bn green energy switch. Essential bills for food, heat, light, transport and insurance have soared by 25% in only five years, research reveals. The increase is four times higher than the rise in salaries over the same period, confirming the longest cost of living squeeze in a century. The country has been steadily getting poorer since the global financial crisis of 2008 that brought banks to their knees and triggered a new era of austerity. AVERAGE PRICE RISES FROM 1999 TO 2013: Pint of Milk up 35% from 34p to 46p Loaf of Bread up 143% from 51p to £1.24 Bag of Sugar up 61% from 61p to 98p Pint of Lager up 65% from £1.93 to £3.18 Bottle of Wine up 42% from £3.55 to £5.03 Pack of 20 Cigarettes up 137% from £3.37 to £7.98 A Litre of Petrol up 108% from 63.6p to 132.4p Average House Prices up 166% from £93,000 to £247,000 Average Mortgage Size up 116% from £54,100 to £117,000 The Level of Consumer debt has risen by 152% from £565 billion to £1426 billion Our Soaring Monthly Bills: Average Monthly Car Insurance Payment up 67% Average Monthly Gas Bill up 52% Average Monthly Petrol Bill up 33% Average Monthly Electricity Bill up 32% Average Monthly Rent up 26% Average Monthly Phone Line Rental up 25% Average Monthly Food Bill up 24% Average Monthly Council Tax Bill up 15% Average Monthly Water up 14% Childcare costs have risen more than twice as fast as inflation at 37% & public transport is up by 30% The average annual energy bill has risen to more than £1,300 a year with more rises in the pipeline as bill-payers are passed the cost of spending £150billion on the switch to ‘green’ energy, nuclear power and rebuilding the national grid of cables and pipes. The price of petrol has risen by 33% in the last 5 years and by 4.5% in the last year alone. The cost of putting food on the table has risen by 24% with vegetables up by 8.4% and fruit up by 7.2% which has resulted in a sharp increase in families turning to the charity of food banks. The average wage has risen by a mere 6% in the last 5 years whilst the average cost of living has risen by 25% resulting in more families being pushed below the bread line Cuts to benefits and tax credits combined with stagnant wages and the rising cost of essentials is resulting in an unprecedented erosion of living standards” The JRF said a single person now needs to earn £16,850 a year, a working couple with two children needs to earn £19,400 EACH, and a lone parent requires earnings of £25,600, in order to meet basic needs yet a full-time worker on the national minimum wage earns around £13,000. The majority of British children will soon be growing up in families which are struggling “below the breadline” because of welfare cuts, tax rises and wage freezes. Within two years 7.1m of the nation’s 13m youngsters will be in homes struggling “below the breadline”. A report has said that 460,000 children would be pushed below the minimum income standards by the increase in VAT and cuts to tax credits, 170,000 by sluggish wage growth and 80,000 by the curbs on public sector pay. Only 20,000 would be raised above the minimum level by the new Universal Credit system and only by a measly 57p a week. The TUC, which commissioned the research by the economist Howard Reed, said the figures should “shame” any civilised society and challenged Mr Osborne to cut VAT to ease the pressures on the lowest income families. By the 2015 election, the majority of children in Britain will be living below the breadline. For any civilized society, that should be shaming. It’s OK if you are one of the 13,000 millionaires in this country because austerity means you get richer. That’s because if you are rich, you’re in line for an extra £100,000 tax break, taken from the pockets of the poor.
Posted on: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 11:12:04 +0000
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