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Millions facing an income crisis across the country

Things are maybe, possibly, starting to look up. The vaccination programme has gone better than anyone, even the government, expected, and COVID infections seem to be coming down. Last week, the prime minister unveiled a roadmap to start easing lockdown.

But we are by no means out of the woods yet. If the public health crisis abates as we all hope it will, it will lay bare the true extent of the crisis in living standards that is now a reality for vast swathes of the population. New analysis from NEF shows that by May, one in three people — a total of 21.7 million — will be living in families with too little income to meet every day needs. Within this, 12.9 million people (one in five) will be living at an especially high risk of material deprivation. Even if the temporary £20 per week uplift to universal credit is extended for a further six months, as is currently being reported, the figures above will only improve by around 0.7 million and 1 million respectively. And from October, when this latest uplift extension would be due to expire, the picture is set to look even worse than the outlook for this May.

Even with the furlough scheme, unemployment has risen substantially over the last year. The latest labour market data shows that last quarter the unemployment rate

— source neweconomics.org | Sarah Arnold, Lukasz Krebel | 01 Mar 2021

Nullius in verba


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