Despite the challenges of the past few years, including the cost of living crisis, the latest report shows that people still think that everyone should be able to do more than merely survive. Meeting basic needs alone is not enough for people to thrive. They need to be able to connect with others, have choices and opportunities and feel included in society. For many UK households the gap between what they have and what they need for a decent standard of living persists.
The report updates MIS to April 2024, providing a detailed picture of what people agreed a minimum socially acceptable living standard should enable people to have and do. For the first time since 2008, minimum budgets have been recalculated from scratch for all households. The core of the basket of goods and services that people identify as necessary for a minimum socially acceptable standard of living continues to remain broadly stable.
However, for the first time, the public has deemed it necessary to set aside a budget for private health treatments – reflecting the challenges of accessing some NHS services. An annual budget of £200 to pay for private health treatments such as counselling or physiotherapy has been included for all working-age adults, highlighting a critical shift in public expectations of our health care system. Drawing on their own experiences, members of the focus groups central to MIS said that accessing healthcare appointments was challenging and that being on NHS waiting lists for a long time can prevent people from working as well as affecting their wellbeing.
The report shows that our social security system leaves many households unable to afford a minimum. This is despite benefits increasing in line with inflation in September 2023 and increases to the National Living Wage (NLW) in April 2024.
- None of the household types looking for work or unable to work can reach the MIS:
- A single adult who receives out-of-work benefits has 28% of MIS, needing £218 more per week to reach MIS
- A couple with two children, one aged 2-4 and one primary school age, where both adults receive out-of-work benefits have 39% of MIS, needing £471 more per week to reach MIS
- For households earning the NLW, only couples with no children both working full-time can reach MIS:
- A single adult working part-time on the NLW has 54% of MIS, needing £138 more per week to reach MIS. Switching to working full-time on the NLW would give a single adult 81% of MIS. They would need £57 more per week to reach MIS
- A couple with two children, one aged 2-4 and one primary school age, both working full-time on the NLW have 84% of MIS, needing £127 more per week to reach MIS
- A couple with no children both working full-time on the NLW have 120% of MIS, or £99 a week more than MIS
Professor Abigail Davis, who leads the MIS research at 台湾六合彩开奖记录, said: “Over the past 16 years, MIS has set out a clear vision of what people in the UK think everyone needs to live with dignity. This is about meeting those basic needs, but it’s also about being able to take part in the world, not feeling excluded or on the edge of society.
“And yet meeting a minimum acceptable standard of living continues to be a real challenge for so many households. As this latest research has highlighted, the lack of investment in public services over the past decade has made meeting this standard even more difficult, as costs have shifted from the state to individuals. This adds to the pressure on already stretched household finances, but also has consequences for physical and mental health which can bring further costs for individuals, households and ultimately government.
“There is much that needs to be done to improve living standards and to ensure a minimum for all – greater investment in our vital public services, a National Living Wage that is a real ‘living wage’, more genuinely affordable housing in the right places, and a social security system that protects and supports households when they need it most. Only by taking action to improve the lives of those on the lowest incomes will we move towards a society in which all are able to live in dignity.”