Half of voters don’t believe living standards will improve under the next government, warns Citizens Advice Ipswich
- Charity says clients in Ipswich area have been helped with over 1000 food parcels and charitable support in last three months alone
- Next government must offer more than lip service to falling living standards
Citizens Advice says solutions to tackle falling living standards are missing in action from this election campaign. The warning comes as polling commissioned by the national charity shows more than half (52%) of voters aren’t hopeful that living standards will improve after the election on 4 July.
Citizens Advice found 43% of UK voters say it’s more difficult to afford essentials than it was six months ago, despite falling inflation and suggestions that the economy is beginning to pick up.
The charity has also released more of its own frontline data, revealing a dramatic increase in people it has helped with living standards issues since 2019, the year of the last general election:
- Citizens Advice Ipswich has seen a four-fold increase in food parcel referrals since 2019-20. (1579 food parcel referrals compared to 399).
- Two and a half times as many charitable grants were processed – £269,266 up from £110,119.
- 113% jump in people helped because they’ve fallen behind on energy bills
- Three times as many working people helped with access to food banks or emergency support.
No wonder then that nearly 48% of voters cited the cost of living or living standards as one of the most important factors influencing their vote, ranking second only to health and the NHS (58%) and ahead of immigration (31%) and even the economy (28%).
Nicky Willshere, Chief Officer at Citizens Advice Ipswich said:
“This is the living standards election. Voters will judge the next government on what they’ll do to tackle this. We’re still helping thousands of people with a cost-of-living issue. That’s too many barely treading water, unable to move forward with their lives, and constantly worried about the next bill dragging them under completely.
“Tackling falling living standards requires more than just lip service. It’s vital we see action that’ll make a genuine difference to people’s lives within the first 100 days of a new government.”