UK workers will be poorer in 2024 than in 2019: Thinktank

United Kingdom (UK) workers’ living standards will worsen by next year because they are set to suffer the worst fall in incomes over a five-year period since the 1950s, according to a leading thinktank.

The Resolution Foundation, an independent British think tank, which focuses its research on low-to-middle income families, said in a report that the UK workers will be poorer in 2024 than they were in 2019. 

According to the report by the Resolution Foundation, the UK workers are on track to be 4% worse off heading into the 2025 general elections than they were in 2019.

The Resolution Foundation further said that “never in living memory have families got so much poorer over the course of a parliament.”

Higher mortgage rates and taxes to affect UK workers

The Resolution Foundation said that higher mortgage rates, tax rises and a stagnant economy can affect the UK workers. Adam Corlett, the Resolution Foundation’s principal economist, has said that “further income falls are on the way for less well-off households.”

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Analysts at the organization said that the incomes of working age families were on course to be 4% lower in the 2024-25 period than they were in the 2019-20 period. 

Pensioners will gain the most

Pensioners will be better off because of savings and no mortgage. According to the report, they will gain the most after an increase in total gross income from interest on savings to £90bn in 2024.

Households with the most savings will receive about £20,000 each on average, while the households with the lowest savings will receive about £100 each on average.

Poverty

Lady Philippa Stroud, a Member of the House of Lords of the United Kingdom and the chair of the Commission, said, “Poverty in the UK is too high and the experiences of many people in poverty are now getting worse.”

The number of people living in absolute poverty is also expected to increase by 300,000 in 2024, reaching 12 million in the 2024-25 period. The Poverty Strategy Commission, an independent commission responsible for tackling poverty in the UK, has said that poverty levels are too high in the UK.