Poorest Britons could lose £1,600 a year - even after cost of living payments

A jobless couple with two children could lose nearly £1,300, or £1,600 if inflation is taken into account, new report finds< /p>

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Cost of living: UK inflation hit a new 40-year high of 9.4% in July

The cost of living crisis could make Britain's poorest people worse off by up to £1,600 a year, even AFTER government payments are taken into account.

A new report has found that support for low-income households has failed to offset the losses they face as prices soar.

Yet Boris Johnson has rejected calls to hold an emergency budget now, or to hold regular COBRA meetings to deal with the crisis, or to recall Parliament.

Downing Street said it would be up to the next prime minister – who won't take office for another month – to decide on any further help for Britons to pay energy bills.

The new report, by Professor Donald Hirsch of Loughborough University, says up to £1,200 offered to the poorest in society this year will fail to offset three major hits to their incomes. October 2021 to October 2022.

The loss of the Universal Credit increase of £20 per week last year; April's annual increase which was lower than inflation, and a huge jump in the

Capping the prices of energy bills will mean that the most disadvantaged families will not be able to fill the gap.

A growing number of people will be struggling with their bills (

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Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Indeed, the lump sum payments offered by the government do not take into account the different sizes and needs of different households, he says.

A couple with three children again loses almost as much from rising prices as from the reduction in the Universal Credit increase last year.

And the loss for an unemployed couple with two children is almost £1,300, or £1,600 if higher inflation for poorer households is taken into account, the report says.

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