The cost of living crisis

 

We're hearing a lot about of cost of living crisis at the moment which as a former C.A.B. Advisor I wouldn't deny was a very real problem for a good number of people.

There are I feel two elements in this which I feel have come together to creat what in modern vernacular  "the perfect storm".

One is the endemic drop in the real value of wages and especially welfare payments when you compare them to the costs of  those things in the modern world we need to get by such as housing costs, fuel costs for heating and heating, telecomunication costs for telephone and internet services including equipment given so much is now done by Internet and then by phone such as applying for work and dealing with Government.

Housing costs historically has been the bigger one with the ratio between salary and mortgages increasing radically since the nineteen seventies.

Similarly for those who rent, the price of rental accommodation has increased a lot at the same time thanks to the "right to buy" the amount of social housing by Councils and increasingly Housing Associations  has diminished that was typical below market value at the same time very little new stock is being built.

This fed into the Housing Benefit bill causing a storm that resulted in capping the amount paid to that of the lowest third in any one district which meant the pressure on social housing increased and in many case I feel there is evidence to suggest that other benefits money has been used to top up the housing benefit just to get an acceptable property meaning there was less spending money in households.

The concern over escalating Housing Benefit bills was justified but in the situation of few more affordable properties being available to rent  and reliance on the increasing price of private rent this was never really going to help.

A large scale program of social housing  is needed to provide high quality basic accommodation with security that is more affordable to both the tenant and for any assistance as a society we may provide for the least well off in affording one.

That effect I feel feeds into the issue of food poverty as there is now less money to spend on food whatever the merits may be of helping people to prepare their own for less which before the Pandemic and the issues from the Russian invasion of Ukraine come into it.

Ditto the fuel poverty as while as I've said fresh food can be more nutritious for less than highly processed foods which is better for peoples health, nonetheless you need to be able to maintain a cooker and pay for the electricity or gas which is increasingly a problem.

A forgotten aspect of that is the cost of getting to work and school which especially for single parents can easily eat up whatever they may earn from working.

Pandemic has effected our lives many of would not of expected back in March 2020, while Furlough was a godsend to many, some sectors have not got back to where they were due to world-wide issues affecting supply chains and some businesses are just extinct.

This has resulted in more reliant on top up payments whose value is increasing questionable from the state and of course those getting benefits for being out of work or sick due to long covid which as someone with long covid I sympathize with hugely. 

When in this context food prices, fuel and utilities have increased by massive amounts it doesn't surprise me that more are reliant on food banks and ironically less are able to contribute to running of them.

It is possible given changed situations some costs may fall, I feel the whole relationship of working to improving standards to living has broken down and the basis for payments in our benefits system needs completely looking at as they just don't meet reasonable needs anymore.