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10/07/2012
New Study Finds Families Now Need Minimum Of £36,000 Per Year
A couple with two children now need to earn £36,800 a year to have a "socially acceptable" standard of living, according to anti-poverty charity.
Families must now earn a third more than in 2008, the Joseph Rowntree Foundations annual minimum income study.
Rising childcare and transport costs, combined with cuts to benefits, have hit families hard, it added.
The minimum income standard (MIS) study - commissioned by the charity from the social policy research unit at Loughborough University - suggests a rising number of UK people live below what the public believes is an acceptable standard of living.
This MIS standard includes earning enough to eat a balanced diet, run a car and heat the home.
Researchers questioned 21 focus groups made up of working families, pensioners and single people of working age.
JRF chief executive Julia Unwin said families faced a "monumental task" 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.
"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."
The research also states that the level of Universal Credit - the government's new benefits system being brought in January 2013 - will strongly influence the ability of households to reach MIS.
(H)
Families must now earn a third more than in 2008, the Joseph Rowntree Foundations annual minimum income study.
Rising childcare and transport costs, combined with cuts to benefits, have hit families hard, it added.
The minimum income standard (MIS) study - commissioned by the charity from the social policy research unit at Loughborough University - suggests a rising number of UK people live below what the public believes is an acceptable standard of living.
This MIS standard includes earning enough to eat a balanced diet, run a car and heat the home.
Researchers questioned 21 focus groups made up of working families, pensioners and single people of working age.
JRF chief executive Julia Unwin said families faced a "monumental task" 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.
"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."
The research also states that the level of Universal Credit - the government's new benefits system being brought in January 2013 - will strongly influence the ability of households to reach MIS.
(H)
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