The cost of living squeeze is going to get tighter this month as millions of households face soaring bills on top of a 1.25 percentage point National Insurance Contributions hike to help pay for health and social care across the UK.
State Pension and other benefits delivered by the Department for Work and Pension (DWP) will be uprated by 3.1% on April 11- but inflation could hit a 40-year high of 8.7% in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
Eight benefits delivered by the Scottish Government will also increase this month, by 6%, to try and help more households mitigate the barrage of increased outgoings on everything from food, streaming TV services, broadband and mobile phone costs and of course, energy bills.
