An Acceptable Standard?

Parents must each earn at least £18,400 in 2011 so their family can live to an acceptable standard the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) said. The JRF report added that a single person needed to earn £15,000 before tax and benefits for an acceptable standard of living. A couple with a single earner and two children need at least £31,600.

"This report shows that the squeeze in living standards caused by the combination of rising prices and stagnant incomes is hitting people on low incomes hard," said the author of the report, Donald Hirsch, of Loughborough University. The minimum cost of living was 5% higher than in 2010. "In practice, earnings have risen by less than inflation, meaning that many people on low incomes are finding it substantially harder to make ends meet than a year ago,"