Families living paycheque to paycheque on brink of benefits

Falling wages and increased expenses are leading to more people living on the brink of poverty and needing to turn to breadlines. Studies from the Deadline to the Breadline charity as well as private groups such as Careerbuilders show the extent of the financial challenges faced by most UK households.

The research shows that people are struggling for many reasons, whether it is a challenging job market, lack of budgeting or financial advice, or increasing cost of food, rent, and housing. The reasons may vary, but the end result is the same, and that is that millions on people are on the verge of turning to friends or family for support. Many others would need to turn to a charity or breadline, or even apply for benefits from the central government.

The Careerbuilder’s research shows that while some people have made some cutbacks in how they are spending their money, such as stopped eating out or almost 40% of people are using more coupons, they are still struggling. Many other steps are being taken as well but people on the brink, such as increased public transportation or cutbacks on leisure activities, but it is still not enough according to the research.

Even with these steps, the number of people that rely on their weekly paycheque to pay their bills on time has increased 10 per cent from last year, and is now at almost 50%. Careerbuilder also shows these people are not saving any money, so the challenge they are being faced with may not go away as they are not taken steps to break the cycle.

Additional reports from Deadline to Breadline support these stats. Their studies show that it would be common for the average family to not only stop paying their bills after two weeks, but they would also need to turn to family or even soup kitchens for food and support after just two weeks. So the problem is real.

Growing wealth inequality for those depending on a paycheque

Some parts of the nation are doing better than others, and the wealth gap varies widely across the UK. Households in London may be able to go 70 days without seeking additional help, while those residents of Wales may last up to 7 days. On the other extreme, people that rent their home or flat would be turning to a breadline in as little as two days if they missed a paycheque. The disparity between wealth and poverty is extreme and continues to increase.

The employment market has improved with less jobless, but wages are still flat. That fact, when combined with increasing costs and reductions in social support for households on a low income, is creating a growing crisis in the number of people living paycheque to paycheque across the UK One emergency faced by these families, or a redundancy in their job, will causes them to do over the cliff of financial disaster.