Energy price hike to ‘devastate the poor’
THE poorest adults could be forced to spend more than half of their income after housing on rising energy bills which could “devastate” the poorest families, analysis suggests.
Low-income families could spend on average 18% of their income after housing costs on energy bills after April, according to analysis from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF).
This rises to 54% for single adult households, and around a quarter for single parents and couples without children.
In comparison, middle-income households are expected to spend on average 6% of their incomes on energy bills, the analysis shows.
The analysis is based on the assumption that the energy price cap will rise by just under 50% from April.
The government said it would continue to “look closely” at what further measures may be needed to help with high energy costs.
The JRF released the figures alongside its annual UK Poverty report, which it said shows a “worrying increase” in the number of children living in the deepest poverty.
Some 31% of children were living in poverty in 2019-20, rising to nearly half of children in single-parent families.
Around 1.8 million children were growing up in very deep poverty - in households with 40% or less than the average income.
This is an increase of half a million children since 2011-12.
A fifth of children were living in households with a low income for at least three of the four years between 2016-2019, rising to around one in three children in single parent families.
The child poverty rate for children in families with three or more children was almost twice as high as the rate for children in oneor two-child families (47% versus 24%).
The JRF said there seems “little prospect” of reversing the recent rising child poverty trends, and also rising pensioner poverty.
Overall, 22% of people in the UK were living in poverty in 2019-20 - 14.5 million people.
Of these, 8.1 million were working-age adults, 4.3 million were children and 2.1 million were pensioners.
More than a million households (containing 2.4 million people) experienced destitution in 2019 - up 35% in two years. This is the most severe form of poverty.
Katie Schmuecker, JRF deputy director of policy and partnerships, said: “No childhood should be defined by a daily struggle to afford the basics. But the reality is that many children growing up today won’t have known anything else.
“The fact that more children are in poverty and sinking deeper into poverty should shame us all.
“Rising energy prices will affect us all, but our analysis shows they have the potential to devastate the budgets of families on the lowest incomes.”