Living standards in UK have fallen again. What did you expect? You have a Tory government
Commuters at London Bridge. Pay rose by 1.9% year-on-year in February, while inflation rose by 2.3% [Image: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters].
We have a Conservative government, here in the UK. Living standards for everybody except the very richest people have been falling for many years now.
That is the price we pay for their selfishness.
Look at the nonsense emanating from work and pensions secretary Damian Green – he blathers on about employment and wages rising without ever paying the slightest attention to the fact that living standards are plummeting.
As for when Theresa May is going to do something to help, the answer is clear: NEVER.
Rising prices and stagnant wage growth have resulted in the first fall in living standards in two and a half years, according to official figures.
Labour market data from the Office for National Statistics showed that regular pay in the UK in February was 1.9% higher than a year earlier and is running below the 2.3% increase in prices.
Despite a fresh fall in unemployment and record job vacancies, economists expect the squeeze on real inflation-adjusted wages to intensify over the coming months as the weak pound affects the cost of living.
The ONS reported a 39,000 increase in employment in the three months to February, while unemployment fell by 45,000 to 1.56m. The jobless rate remained unchanged at 4.7% – its joint lowest since 1975 – and job vacancies stood at 767,000.
Damian Green, the work and pensions secretary, said: “This is yet another strong set of figures, with unemployment at a rate that hasn’t been beaten since the 1970s and more vacancies than ever before. More people are finding full-time jobs and average wages have grown yet again, meaning more families have the security of a regular wage.”
But unions took a different view. Frances O’Grady, the TUC general secretary, said: “Pay packets are taking a hammering from rising inflation and falling wage growth. We now need urgent action to stop another living standards crisis. Working people will want to know when Theresa May is going to do something to help.”
Source: Living standards in UK fall for the first time since 2014 | Money | The Guardian
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robin hood in reverse id this government of the people oh dear whot peoples theirs
The Tories must be gloating, although I suspect that for many of them the fall in living standards for working class people isn’t anywhere near high enough yet – they’re still trying to achieve 19th century standards.
And so the great tory master plan comes together
I do wish that someone or organisation would separate out the real jobs from the non jobs that this rotten government is so fond of creating. How many are zero hours contracts, how many below the minimum wage and most of all how many are insufficient hours to provide a decent standard of living?
Even zero hours are “real” Jobs, just packaged to benefit the employer and to leave the poor workers even poorer, and with reduced NI contributions, leading to reduced benefits if and when they need to fall back on them.
How would they account for the increasing numbers in poverty over the whole of the last 7 years, then? Because for many its been nothing but falling living standards. I would wager that the “predicted” future falls are a dead certainty, if like the last 7 years the poorest have got poorer because of changes to the benefit system.
They have been falling since tony, things can only get better, (for the rich) Bliar got into power.