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The UK government is doing too little to protect people from a spiralling cost of living crisis that will increase poverty and health inequalities and intensify the strain on NHS services, say health leaders, analysts, and campaigners in response to Rishi Sunak’s spring financial statement given to MPs on 23 March.1
The Resolution Foundation, a think tank on improving living standards, said that the lack of support for low income families would push 1.3 million more people into absolute poverty next year including 500 000 children, while seven in eight workers would see their tax bills rise by the end of this parliament.
The Resolution Foundation’s chief executive, Torsten Bell, said, “The decision not to target support at those hardest hit by rising prices will leave low and middle income households painfully exposed.”
The charity the Health Foundation said that the chancellor’s statement showed that the government “has yet to fully grasp the pandemic’s stark lesson that health and wealth are fundamentally intertwined.”
Sunak set out measures intended to combat soaring prices for energy, food, and fuel. Inflation will average 7.4% in 2022, peaking at 8.7% by the end of the year, the Office for Budget Responsibility has said in its forecasts.
Sunak also cut fuel duty by 5p and gave councils another £500m for the Household Support Fund from April, designed to help vulnerable households with rising living...