Stirling Households Face Cost of Living Crisis

Published:

Categories: Constituency, Energy, Inequality, UK Government (Westminster)

Energy Bills Set to Cost 18% of Low-Income Household Budgets

Household budgets across Stirling are set to face another blow, as energy bills continue to soar. Analysis by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) finds households on low incomes across the UK will spend an average of 18% of their income after housing costs on energy bills from April. For single adult households on low incomes this rises to 54% – an increase of 21 percentage points since 2019/20.

The report, which compares household spending on gas and electricity bills of low- and middle-income families between 2019/20 and 2022/23, also found that lone parents and couples without children will spend around a quarter of their income on energy bills – an increase of almost 10 percentage points.

Spiralling costs for electricity and gas come on top of rising inflation, increases in food prices, labour shortages, cuts to Universal Credit and the looming hike in April of both National Insurance contributions and the energy price cap. Amidst economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, it remains clear households across Stirling face a cost-of-living crisis under the economic stewardship of the Tories at Westminster.

Local Stirling MP Alyn Smith said:

‘Whilst the UK Government tries to cover up scandal and sleaze to save the career of Boris Johnson, households in Stirling and across Scotland face a cost-of-living crisis. Energy and food bills continue to rise, as does inflation. The imminent rise in National Insurance contributions comes alongside weak economic growth. All of this is on top of a deeply unbalanced and underperforming UK economy, with the worst levels of poverty and inequality in northwest Europe – all after a decade of Tory austerity. 

‘The Scottish Government is tackling poverty by doubling the Scottish Child Payment and introducing new benefits, but cuts from Westminster continue to undermine progress. Austerity is a false economy, as it deepens inequality and exacerbates issues which become more expensive to resolve in the future.

‘The UK Government must act with urgency: reverse its cuts to Universal Credit, match the Scottish Child Payment UK-wide, deliver a low-income energy payment, introduce a real living wage, raise sick pay, and scrap damaging policies like the bedroom tax and two-child cap, which have plunged people into poverty and hardship across the UK.’

Notes for Editors:

The full report can be found here: https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/uk-poverty-2022