Life, as every child knows, is unfair. But how unfair? The Office for National Statistics (ONS), says ‘very’ and, unlike the nation’s parents, has the data to back it up.
It has identified sections of the population experiencing financial vulnerability, based on the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey from the period 8 February to 1 May this year. It found:
Renters (4.7 higher odds) and mortgage holders (2.0 higher odds) had higher chances of experiencing financial vulnerability compared with those who own their home outright. On average, tenants spend 21 per cent of their disposable income on rent (and much higher in London) while mortgage holders spend 16 per cent on repayments. So far, so intuitive.
Going by age, adults 25 to 34 have 3.4 higher odds of experiencing financial vulnerability compared with those aged 75 years and older, in large part thanks to the pensions triple lock and the fact that many retirees will own their homes outright. Meanwhile, disabled adults had 1.9 higher odds compared with non-disabled adults. But all this still feels somewhat intangible, so we must go more granular.
Around 1 in 20 adults report running out of food and being unable to afford to buy more at some point in the past two weeks. If you toggle with the interactive graphic in figure 7, you see that number rises to one in 10 for parents with a baby or toddler. This soars to more than one in four for single-parent households.
In terms of housing tenure, one in seven renters report running out of food compared with one in 33 mortgage holders. And yet, of course, the cost of borrowing seems to garner much more interest than that of rents. There is an ethnicity bias too. Around one in seven Black, African Caribbean or Black British adults reported running out of food and not been able to afford more in the last two weeks, compared with one in 20 among Asian or Asian British households.
Much of this week has been dominated by somewhat esoteric debates about how we should fund public sector pay rises, associated inflationary impacts, anaemic economic growth and debt-to-GDP ratios. I am as guilty as any, because I find all these things fascinating, and they are no doubt important. But they matter only insofar as they impact people.
If Britain had a more successful economy, if inflation were at target and the public finances in better shape, fewer of us would go hungry and that would be a good thing.
Elsewhere in the paper, my second favourite ONS [Jabeur] is through to her second Wimbledon final. You can follow today’s live action here.
In the comment pages, Tracey Emin has to battle jellyfish and worse, but says nothing beats sea swimming. I suggest in order to defeat the Nimbys we must admit they have a point – and stuff their mouths with gold. While Emma Loffhagen calls it shameful that broadcasters have failed the Lionesses with their woeful World Cup coverage.
And finally, from this summer’s most anticipated restaurant to ‘Barrioke’, Mike Daw has everything you need for this weekend.
Have a good one.
