Quotes by BMJ

Joseph Rowntree Foundation has published the latest annual update of its "minimum income standards" (MIS). These standards provide a measure of how much various types of households need to earn to reach what members of the public think is a minimum acceptable standard of living.

... in contrast to official inflation over the past decade of 23%, minimum budget costs have risen by 38% over that period, largely because of increased costs of food (37%), bus fares (59%), and council tax (67%). This demonstrates the often cited reality that price inflation for goods that dominate the budgets of poorer households is greater than for the average household’s budget; this is important because the official inflation figure is used to update all state benefits, and these form a higher proportion of income for people on the lowest incomes...

A single person who could just manage in 2000, and whose income has only kept pace with inflation, will by April 2010 have been nearly £20 a week short of what he or she needs to meet the minimum budget. What will these people have had to go without to avoid getting into debt? If they are unemployed, as 29% of UK single adults of working age are, the basic out of work benefits provide less than half the MIS a single adult needs. For unemployed couples with children benefits provide about two thirds of what they need. Working couples with two children now need an income of £29 700 a year to afford a basic but acceptable standard of living (including childcare costs). This equates to £7.60 an hour, but the minimum wage is only £5.80 an hour, and around 23% of full time workers and 39% of part time workers aged 22 and above were paid less than £7 an hour in 2009,3 so low pay must affect the wellbeing of many households.