Its getting worse...wot recovery?

Almost two out of five families with children are struggling to make ends meet and do not have enough money for a socially acceptable standard of living, according to a new report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF)

At least eight million parents and children are living on incomes below what was needed to cover a minimum household budget. There has been a widening gap in income "inadequacy" since the recession with lone parents and single breadwinner families facing particular pressure. Around 71% of lone parents live on inadequate incomes.

Cuts to benefits and tax credits and a real-term fall in wages were behind the growing gap between the incomes of families with children and the income they need, said the study. 

Katie Schmuecker, policy and research manager at JRF, said: " Stagnant wages, cuts to in and out-of-work benefits and sharp rises in the cost of essential items over several years have taken their toll upon the ability of families with children to secure a decent living standard.”

Living standards have fallen as wages have been squeezed, and the cost of living goes up week by week. You don’t need to look at the economic statistics to tell you what life is like for millions of people across Britain. Wages have fallen by 6% in real terms since the crash; that has allowed nearly a million young people to fester on the dole; Food-banks and pay day lenders flourish while zero hours contracts and low pay become the new workplace norm. We know that austerity is little more than a fig leaf for an ideological drive to shrink state spending.

Our aim in the Socialist Party is simple: to ensure we have an economic system not for the rich or the corporations, but in the interests of workers and their families.