10 years on... how fatcats’ crash has cost you £23,400
Households hit by banking crisis
THE typical household is £23,400 worse off because of the banking crisis 10 years ago.
Consequences of the crash – such as paltry pay rises, pitiful rates for savers and benefits being hit – have taken a big toll, a report reveals.
It says the average household’s disposable income is £81 a week less in real terms than if it had kept rising at pre-crisis levels.
David Hillman, of the 10 Years On campaign which produced the report, said: “Let’s not forget that it was the banks – no one else – who clobbered the country.”
While families are still paying the price of the recession, Britain’s biggest lenders have dished out more than £50billion in bonuses since the crash.
Mr Hillman said it proves that the sector “can surely afford to pay more in tax to safeguard our precious public services”.
The report found that household incomes rose 2.58% per year, adjusted for inflation, in the decade before the crisis. That slumped to 0.27% a year in the decade since.
It means £23,436 of lost income in 10 years for a household with an annual income of around £25,700.
The wage growth slump has been partly caused by recessionhit companies cutting back. Today’s report comes almost exactly 10 years since Wall Street banking giant Lehman Brothers collapsed. The financial crash was fuelled by reckless lending.
UK taxpayers put £130billion into directly bailing out banks here including Royal Bank of Scotland, led by Fred “the Shred” Goodwin.
Northern Rock failed and was taken into public ownership.
A separate report out yesterday from the Institute for Fiscal Studies found that on average people’s wages in real terms are £800 a year lower than a decade ago.
Meanwhile, the Government has cut almost £50billion from public services since 2010, and over £30billion from social services.