You don't have to look hard at the moment to find evidence of enormous financial pressures on UK households. New figures from the Trussell Trust show that 1.5 million emergency food parcels were distributed to people between April and September 2023. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation's latest report on deprivation in England shows that about 3.8 million people in 2022 cannot meet their needs. Basic physical needs – keeping warm, dry, clean and fed – have more than doubled compared to 2017. And the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and hunger President, Olivier De Schutter, accused the British government of failing to provide social assistance system that ensures an adequate standard of living for all.

But what does it mean to have an adequate standard of living?

For the past 15 years, we have been conducting research on this topic, trying to determine the kind of standard of living that we, as a society, agree is attainable for everyone. We call this the Minimum Income Standard (MIS). Unlike poverty measures that focus on what individuals lack, whether in income or material possessions, SIM establishes what is needed to achieve a specified standard of living and how to meet those needs. this bridge.

A minimum standard of living

We spoke to hundreds of groups of people from different backgrounds and household types to determine a minimum standard of living that includes more than just food, clothing and shelter. This minimum is about having what you need to have the opportunities and choices needed to participate in society. As one participant said at the beginning of our study: “Food, clothing and shelter help you survive, but that is not living.” Living with dignity is not just about surviving but also about being able to participate in the world around you. GIS details what households need to meet their material and non-material needs, establishing baskets of goods and services that combine to provide an adequate standard of living. From these baskets, we calculate how much different households have to spend to reach this level, as well as the income needed to cover these costs. In 2023, we calculated that a single person would need to earn £29,500 to have an acceptable standard of living, up from £25,000 in 2022. A couple with two children would need to earn £50,000 , up from £44,500 in 2022. Our latest analysis shows that 19.2 million people (29% of the population) in the UK live in households with below the minimum income and no have the income they need. This is a result of significant pressure on household incomes and inflation, especially for food and fuel. And while costs are increasing rapidly, people's incomes, whether they work or not, cannot keep up. A single, unemployed person receives only 30% of the amount they need to access MIS. Even working full-time at the National Living Wage, they only get 73% of what they need, far short of an adequate standard of living. In April 2023, the total annual salary for a full-time job (37.5 hours per week) on the National Living Wage was £20,375. A couple with two children, on unemployment benefits, have half of what they need, and because they both work full time at the national living wage they still don't have MIS, have 95% of these they need to have acceptable levels of living.