What would you do with £40 extra a week? It’s something many households that need benefits can only dream of, as a winter of spiralling costs draws closer. But if basic benefit levels had grown with the economy since 1991, standard social security payments would now be £40 a week higher than they are now. It looks like growth – Liz Truss’s watchword – isn’t as much of a priority when the government decides what (not) to do with its proceeds.
Basic benefit levels have fallen rather than risen in relation to GDP per capita over the last 30 years, equating to that shortfall of £40 a week, as revealed last year by the Resolution Foundation, a living standards think tank.
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