FAMILIES face a “tripple whammy” hit to their pockets of more than £500 in the coming six months, a study shows.
Households with children could see their income plunge £20 a week resulting from rising living costs, energy price hikes and a fall in income support, research shows.
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The hardest hit in the ‘living squeeze’ will be low and middle income families, the Resolution Foundation say.
Living pressures hitting the country will see inflation hitting 4 per cent over the winter, some utility bills up 12 per cent next month and the end of the £20 uplift to Universal Credit.
Even wage growth will likely turn negative for many workers as inflation rockets, it says.
A couple with two children, both working full-time and earning slightly above the new NLW would be £23 a week worse off.
The government must change course or face owning the ‘living squeeze’, they say.
Karl Handscomb, Senior Economist at the Resolution Foundation, said: “Britain is about to enter a tight cost of living squeeze over the next six months as high inflation and rising energy bills collide with the Government’s decision to cut benefits and raise taxes.
“Low-and-middle-income families will face the tightest squeeze. Many drivers of high inflation should be short-lived, but that will be of little comfort to families struggling over the coming weeks and months.
“While policies like the National Living Wage will deliver a welcome income boost for some, for many low-income families this won’t come close to offsetting the damage caused by cutting Universal Credit.
“Maintaining the £20 a week uplift will go a long towards easing the coming cost of living squeeze for millions of families.”
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