Inflation hits 3%

Struggling workers in crisis as price rises reach five-year high

MILLIONS of workers are at “breaking point” as inflation hits its highest level in five years, unions have warned.

The consumer prices index rose from 2.9% to 3% last month, the Office for National Statistics announced. The rise, which puts inflation at its highest since April 2012, was driven by higher transport and food prices.

Increasing living costs and weak wage growth are hammering families. Tim Roache, general secretary of GMB union, said: “It’s shameful that working people can’t make ends meet because wage rises are failing to keep pace with inflation.

“More than five million public sector workers are now at breaking point.” TUC general secretary, Frances O’Grady, said: “The Chancellor must use November’s Budget to ease the pressure on families.”

Inflation could rise even further, making it more likely that the Bank of England will increase interest rates, for the first time in a decade. Governor Mark Carney told MPs yesterday inflation would probably rise above 3% this month or the next. But September’s CPI will be used to increase the state pension by 3% from next April.

Yet the alternative retail prices index, which jumped to 3.9%, will mean higher business rates, which the British Retail Consortium warned would force a new wave of shop closures.

AS inflation climbs to a five-year peak, workers’ living standards keep falling and growth continues to slow – a damning indictment of the Tories’ economic plan.

The benefits freeze must be now lifted, as experts predict that rising inflation will plunge another half a million people into poverty, with millions more having less to spend each week.

While inflation is at 3%, grafters in the private and public sectors are getting pay rises well below that figure, so even with the Tories relaxing the 1% cap for some public sector employees, workers are still suffering.

Far from helping the just-about-managing, the failures of Prime Minister Theresa May and her Tory party – along with the Brexit-induced drop in the pound – mean it has become harder for anyone to manage at all.

Punishing those in work as well as those looking for employment is a contemptible Conservative double whammy.