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(Picture: PA Wire)More than a third of people living in England’s most deprived neighbourhoods were struggling to pay their daily bills even before April’s surge in energy prices, official data has revealed.
The proportion of adults in these areas who found it “difficult” or “very difficult” to “pay their usual households bills” such as for food, fuel and energy, rose from 25 per cent in November to 34 per cent in March, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Across all adults in England the rise was from 17 per cent to 23 per cent.
The survey was carried out a week before a 54 per cent jump in the cap for gas and electricity tariffs came into force at the start of this month. That is expected to hugely increase pressure on low income families.
The data came as two of Britain’s biggest supermarket chains, Asda and Morrisons, said they were cutting prices on scores of household staples to help struggling customers.
Asda said its latest Income Tracker survey of customers recorded the biggest ever drop in disposable income in March, with families £16.90 worse off a week on average — a loss of nearly £900 across the year as a whole. The squeeze was worst for lowest income families with disposable income down 74 per cent in March compared with the same month last year.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has been criticised for not doing more to help the worst off in his spring statement last month amid the most dramatic squeeze on living standards since records began.
The ONS data did not provide a regional breakdown but showed that 37 per cent of renters found it difficult to pay bills compared with 23 per cent of home owners. London has the highest proportion of renters of any region.
The boroughs with highest number of areas in the worst 10 per cent for deprivation are Barking & Dagenham, Hackney and Newham.
Across all income groups 87 per cent of adults reported a rise in their cost of living over the previous month in March compared with 62 per cent in November 2021, according to the ONS.
Asda said it was investing £73 million in cutting prices on more than 100 “family favourites” until the end of this year. Mohsin Issa, co-owner of Asda, said: “We know that household budgets are being squeezed by an increasing cost of living and we are committed to doing everything we can to support our customers, colleagues and communities in these exceptionally tough times.
A pack of four tins of John West tuna is coming down by 14 per cent from £3.50 to £3, and 500g of Asda easy cook rice has dropped by from £1 to 75p.
Morrisons is reducing prices on more than 500 products covering six per cent of its total sales. New multi-save offers include “Buy 2 for £1.80” on cereals. The average saving is 13 per cent.