It’s no secret that much of the country is feeling the effects of the current financial climate but it is quite surprising just how close to the wire lots of families are.
According to new research by Halifax 13 per cent of people said that a rise in monthly living costs of £24 or less would be extremely troublesome and nearly half of the households (46 per cent) said that they would struggle to cope if at all if their bills rose by £99 or more per month.
According to the research it is people in their forties and fifties that are the worst affected; nearly 20 per cent of them said they wouldn’t be able to cope if their bills rose by as little as £24 or under.
People across the UK have been struggling with the ever climbing cost of living which isn’t being helped by inflation. Everything from utilities bills, fuel bills and most importantly food bills seem to continuously rise. Even the mortgage companies have started to raise their interest charges despite the base rate of interest remaining at 0.5 per cent where it has been since March 2009.
Just today the Bank of England has warned that while a slow but steady recovery is on the cards, inflation is likely to remain painfully high, possibly for another 2 years. Sir Mervyn King said that: ‘We would like inflation to come down much faster. We are certainly not happy with the present situation but it does not follow from that that the best thing to do is to raise interest rates and push the economy into recession.’
Anthony Warrington from Halifax said that ‘There is no quick way to ease the squeeze on households and many are already cutting back where they can. With so many households at full stretch it’s even more important to make strict budgets and keep on top of finances and outgoings.’