"Is That It?" Advice NI responds to Chancellor's Spring Statement

"There is little in this Spring Statement for households and families struggling with the current cost of living crisis. Despite an acknowledgement that inflation is likely to rise to 7.4% this year, there was no movement on uprating Universal Credit and other means tested benefits where the planned 3.1% increase will feel like a cut in terms of coping with rising bills and household costs.

The Government's own Office for Budget Responsibility states that the rise in inflation to a 40-year high this year will reduce real household disposable incomes leading to the biggest fall in living standards in any single financial year since records began. 

In that context we have to ask 'Is that it?'. Poverty, hardship and destitution will be the consequences of the Chancellor's failure to act."