Today, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JFR) has found that, after April 2022, low income households will be spending roughly 18% of their income on energy bills, compared to 6% of middle-income families – after housing costs.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation is a charity that aims to solve poverty in the UK. They believe that this increase will lead to additional pressure on households already struggling to cope with bills.
For single adults that are on low-incomes, this bill increase is an additional 21% higher than the previous year.
Research from the Office of National Statistics (2020) found that there were 2.9 million lone parent families, which accounts for 14.7% of UK families.
The rise in energy bills will hit these single-parent households harder than other households and could lead to an increase of children being brought up in poverty.
Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), in March 2021, found that 49% of children living in lone-parent families are in poverty. This is due to lack of childcare options, low rates of maintenance pay and unstable income.
But larger families are just as at risk of poverty, with 47% of children living in a household with three or more children already living in poverty, according to the CPAG.
This comes months after a £20 per week cut to Universal Credit in the Autumn of 2021.
To combat this, JFR has called for emergency payment to help prevent hardships for people on low incomes.
A Government spokesman has said: “We will continue to look closely at the pressures facing people and what further measures might be needed on abating high energy costs.”
