Standard of Living
(asked on 18th August 2021) - View Source
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of potential changes in living standards in (a) Newport West, (b) Wales and (c) the UK.
The Government continues to monitor and publish trends in households’ living standards across the UK. The Household Below Average Income (HBAI) publication looks at household incomes in the UK. The latest available figures cover up to the financial year 2019/20 and so do not cover the time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The latest HBAI figures can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-for-financial-years-ending-1995-to-2020. The tables below summarise the trends in median household income for the UK and for Wales. Data is not available at the constituency or local authority level.
| Weekly Median Household Deposable Income (Before Housing Costs) | |
| Real value in latest year (2019/20) | Percentage change since previous year |
UK | £547 | +4.5% |
Wales (3-year average) | £492 | +1.7% |
| Weekly Median House Disposable Income (After Housing Costs) | |
| Real value in latest year (2019/20) | Percentage change since previous year |
UK | £476 | +4.5% |
Wales (3-year average) | £440 | +1.8% |
In addition, since the onset of the pandemic, the Government has sought to protect people’s jobs and living standards across the UK, including in the Newport West constituency and Wales. This includes unprecedented measures such as the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) and the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS).
For the latest HMRC statistics on the use of the CJRS, see the table below (from published HMRC figures found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/coronavirus-job-retention-scheme-statistics-29-july-2021/coronavirus-job-retention-scheme-statistics-29-july-2021 ):
| Cumulative number of employments furloughed since March 2020 (up to 14 July 2021) |
Newport West | 13,300 |
Wales | 472,800 |
UK | 11,611,900 |
For the latest figures on the use of the SEISS, see the table below (from published HMRC figures found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/self-employment-income-support-scheme-statistics-july-2021 )
| Number of individuals who have made SEISS claims across all four grants (up to 6 June 2021) |
Newport West | 2,700 |
Wales | 121,000 |
UK | 2,879,000 |
Lastly, to illustrate the challenges faced by households in the UK during COVID-19, and how government interventions have supported households of different income levels, HM Treasury published distributional analysis alongside the Budget 2021 showing estimates of the change in household net incomes between February and November 2020. This can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/966207/DA_Document_Budget_2021.pdf