Recent research from Barnardo’s showed that a quarter of parents are still struggling to provide enough food for their children. This equates to 3.4 million children whose parents have struggled to afford food in the past year, an increase of 5% from October 2022.
And almost half of people receiving universal credit are running out of food and 1.6 million people claiming universal credit needed to use a food bank in the last year, according to the Trussell Trust. That’s approximately the population of Birmingham and Manchester put together.
The poorest have been worst impacted by high inflation rates and that’s because the cost of essentials like food were soaring at a faster rate, and low-income families typically spend a higher share of their income on the basics they need to survive.
As a result, the effective inflation rate for the poorest tenth of households is around 2% higher than it is for the richest tenth of households, figures from the Resolution Foundation have shown.
Andy Mielczarek, chief executive of Chetwood Financial, called the latest inflation figures a “further shot in the arm for both consumers and businesses” – but he was hopeful that this “relative period of calm sets the stage for continued recovery and brighter prospects”.
However, Boait fears that the country remains unprotected from price shocks, and she argues that more must be done to address the burgeoning sources of higher inflation – such as crop shortages caused by the climate crisis.
“The worry for us is, without that attention and that kind of wider conversation about what’s just happened over the last two years and what the policy tools are needed to address it, then it just becomes a bit of a non-event until there’s another shock, which we know there will be, and we also know those food prices will creep up,” Boait says.
“That’s really going to have the biggest impact on people struggling to get by. We have millions using food banks and not being able to afford the cost of food and, with climate change, that’s set to get worse.
“We want to talk about the wider context we’re living in, which is inflation driven by climate change, by fossil fuels, by corporate profits. The Bank of England and the Treasury should be looking at those underlying issues.”
The cost of living crisis has seen millions of people plunged into debt and living in poverty. People are already struggling now, with inflation at “normal” levels. How would they cope if faced with another shock to the country’s finances?
The energy market is volatile, and food prices are expected to rise as it becomes more difficult to access amid the climate crisis, and big corporations are continuing to make huge profits which drives up inflation.
Boait is urging policymakers to consider ways to protect the country in the long-term – through ensuring wages rise to match price rises, investing in solutions to tackle the climate crisis, and taxing corporations so that profits do not drive up inflation.
She adds: “They really need to be redesigning their policies to look at what’s happening to people who are struggling the most at this time.”
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