Inflation is hitting society’s most vulnerable households hardest

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The writer is director of policy, research and impact at the Trussell Trust, a charity which supports food banks and campaigns to end the need for them across the UK

If you were to imagine a cost-of-living crisis inflicting the greatest damage on those least able to bear it, it would closely resemble the current economic situation in the UK.

Why? First, because today’s crisis has been driven primarily by sharp increases in food and energy prices, costs that account for a much larger percentage of the budgets of low-income people than those who are better off. Recently, the Office for National Statistics found that inflation for low-income families was 10.1%, while for high-income families it was only 8.7%.

The real-life impacts of this imbalance are particularly devastating because prices have risen the most in areas of spending where the cuts are causing real hardship: people cannot afford to eat, they sit in the cold and dark and are afraid to turn on the washing machine or oven. The latest inflation data this week showed that food price inflation remains high, even as other cost pressures begin to ease. There are particularly staggering increases in the cost of staples, which are the building blocks of affordable meals: milk is up 33%, potatoes and bread up 28%, eggs up 37%.

In the Trussell Trust research with people on universal credit, a parent described their daily struggles to keep his family fed and clean. They said to charity: “The babies are fed, but my husband and I rarely do. I haven’t paid my water bill, but I’ll have to stop paying another bill by the end of the month as food prices are rising rapidly.” The family reportedly worried about gas and electricity, which were on the meters key, which ran out: “So that’s all until Monday, even with no lights on and minimal technology. I’m hand washing everything outside in buckets to save money.”

The damage this current crisis is inflicting is exacerbated because it comes in the wake of the disproportionate impacts of the pandemic on people who were already struggling. Workers in poverty it has borne the brunt of the Covid-related job losses and income drops. During the pandemic, people with high incomes tended to keep their paychecks and even build up savings low-income people were forced to take on more debt to cover costs which has increased as their incomes have decreased.

The vulnerability of these individuals first to the pandemic and then to the cost-of-living crisis has been even greater due to the long-term trend of rising levels of deep poverty. Research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that between 2017 and 2019, poverty in the UK increased by 54%.

Amidst all of this, support is extending past the breakout point. Last August, NHS bosses wrote to the chancellor warning that the cost-of-living crisis was about to become an NHS crisis, due to the impact of poverty on people’s health. This added pressure on an already strained health service is likely to have increased further over the past year.

A shocking culmination of all this was the revelation that food banks in the Trussell Trust network had provided nearly 3 million parcels over the past year, including one million for children. This was a 37% increase on the number of emergency parcels distributed the previous year, reflecting a record level of need across the UK. But our data (supported by other research on deep poverty and hardship) show that this is not a sudden emergency: it is the latest chapter in a long-term crisis, with needs more than doubling in the past five years.

The food bank volunteers and staff were up to every challenge and met every wave of need. They’ll keep doing it, but they’re tired. Many are tired to the bone. A food bank leader described it as a “pressure cooker situation. Another, reflecting on the “peaks and troughs of demand” in the monthly data, said of this year: “Unfortunately, we have reached a new level that we never wanted to reach.”

Every day it becomes clearer to all of us that food banks and charitable support are not the solution. Food inflation is expected to decrease after the cost of inputs such as energy and raw materials fall, but this will not end this crisis. Millions of people will still find themselves unable to afford the essentials, trapped in appalling situations, until we provide real and sustainable solutions, starting with reform universal credit.

It seems incredible that the level of this benefit is not fixed with reference to the actual essentials of life, but that is the situation. The result is that the current rate has fallen significantly below the costs of food, clothing and basic household items such as cleaning supplies. We have calculated that a single adult needs £120 a week to cover these costs, but Universal Credit only provides £85.

Charities simply cannot address the root causes of this unacceptable hardship on their own – we will never be able to do enough to reverse the trend of hunger.