Britain’s struggling workers will be £5,000 worse off by 2022 as a result of the biggest squeeze on incomes in 60 years, says IFS
A bombshell report said households face at least another two years without any income growth given stagnant wages and capped benefits
BRITAIN’s struggling workers face at least another two years of flat-lining incomes in the biggest squeeze for 60 years.
A bombshell report from the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) last night said households will suffer from poor wage growth, rising inflation and capped benefits.
And they will end the decade nearly 20 per cent or £5,000 worse off than expected before the credit crisis erupted a decade ago.
Low-income households with children – the ‘just about managing’ families Theresa May vowed to help on entering No.10 – are likely to fare worst, the IFS added.
The IFS said the sustained slowdown in income growth across the UK since the crisis was “unprecedented in at least the last 60 years”.
And the IFS fuelled the debate about inequality by showing the average income over 65s is rising at TWICE the speed of working age Brits – thanks to inflation-busting pension hikes and the fact more are working beyond the traditional retirement age.
The report claimed pensioner incomes will be a staggering 24 per cent higher than it was in in 2007 – and 8 per cent above the average.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation yesterday warned the figures showed “millions of families across the country are teetering on a precipice”.
Campbell Robb, JRF chief exec, said: “It is essential that the Prime Minister and the Chancellor use the upcoming Budget to put in place measures to stop this happening.”
A Treasury spokesperson insisted the Government was taking action on the costs of living such as cutting taxes for “millions of working people”.
But Tom Waters, IFS research economist, said: “Even if earnings do much better than expected over the next few years, the long shadow cast by the financial crisis will not have receded.”