More than 50 charities have warned that the consequences of driving through a below-inflation benefit pay rise in April will be “unthinkable” for households already struggling to cover soaring food and energy costs and a rise in national insurance.
The UK Ministers are coming under growing pressure to intervene to soften the impact of the cost of living crisis amid fresh warnings that millions of low-income households risk sliding into further debt, hunger and poverty.
Meanwhile, the former prime minister Gordon Brown warned that anxiety over the cost of living crisis had replaced the pandemic as the biggest source of worry in the public’s minds. The government is understood to be reluctant to commit to extra spending but is said to acknowledge
concerns over the critical “starve or freeze” choices faced by low-income families as energy and food bills soar way beyond incomes.
