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LIVING STANDARDS

What about them? THE question posed by Ronald Reagan in the US presidential election in 1980 – Are you better off now than you were four years ago? – will be a key battleground in the General Election. The main parties were trading blows over it yesterday. The Tories claim they have risen since the last election; Labour says the opposite.

Who is right?

The Tories were given a helping hand by the Office for National Statistics yesterday. Official figures showed so-called ‘real household disposable income per head’ (RHDI) reached £4,187 at the end of last year. That was up 1.9pc or £77 from the end of 2013 and 0.2pc or £9 since the second quarter of 2010 when the Coalition came to power.

Is that it?

Yes. A whopping £9. But experts believe things are looking up thanks to ultra-low inflation – it is at a 55-year low of zero – and rising wages which will boost incomes in the coming months. George Osborne claims households will be around £900 better off by the end of this year than they were in 2010 on the RHDI per head measure.

But what is RHDI?

It is how much households have to spend or save after taxes, national insurance, pension contributions and interest have been paid. Labour prefers gross earnings as a measure – which it claims shows people are £1,600 worse off under the Coalition.