Calls to bring benefit and pension rises forward as cost of living increases
Ministers are facing growing calls to bring forward large increases in benefits and the state pension which will be paid from next April.
Richard Lane, from the charity, said: "While we don't doubt that policymakers are aware of the problem, at present the measures being taken to plug the gap are simply not sufficient to help many households avoid incurring debt as a result of the rising cost of living." Benefits and the state pension went up by 3.1% in April this year, to match the inflation rate in September 2021.which was at a 40-year high of 9% in April according to the latest official figuresForecasts suggest the rate of price rises could climb by this September. In turn, that would mean a rise in benefits and the state pension of close to 10% in April 2023.
Karl Handscomb, senior economist at the Resolution Foundation, said that keeping people waiting until next April was "a recipe for more debt".He said some people on the state pension would be among the most vulnerable to rising energy bills in the coming winter. Mrs Gibbons said: "It's making it more difficult to see our family on a regular basis because you just can't afford it anymore the money's not there. We just can't see our children as much as we'd like to."
One of the key reasons for that, according to Chancellor Rishi Sunak, is that the welfare systems involved made it technically difficult to change the uprating and paying of older benefits before April.
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