Poorest households’ budgets eaten up by food 

Friday 17th February 2012

Research reveals that the UK’s lowest income homes are being forced to spend a disproportionate amount of their weekly expenditure on food shopping.

The average household in the UK spends 11% of its weekly expenditure on food.  However, 20% of households (those on lower incomes) are actually forced to spend proportionately at least 30% more of their current weekly food spend than the national average.
 
The research, released by supermarket chain Morrisons, found that 5.2 million households - already defined as living in poverty - spend 15.5% or more of their total weekly outgoings on food and non alcoholic drinks alone: up from 14.5% in 2007. 

A four-person family with a household income of £13,000 spends 16 per cent of its total expenditure on food per week while a single pensioner on a state pension spends 18 per cent of their total expenditure on food per week.

The number of households living on a low income has been increasing over the past thirty years. Between 1979 and 2009, the proportion of households in the UK living on a low income increased from 13.7% to 22.3% – an increase of 5.8 million people.

“These findings make for worrying reading. In today’s stretched financial society, low income households spend a disproportionate amount of their income on food,” said John Glen, senior lecturer in economics at Cranfield School of Management.

 “Since 2007, food inflation has increased by 26% and with wages rising by only 8.5 per cent over the same period the problem is obvious. If food inflation continues to exceed a rise in wages, this issue is only set to get worse for those households living on low income.”

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