In the light of the new minimum income thresholds....
"A couple with two children now need to earn £36,800 a year to have a "socially acceptable" standard of living, an anti-poverty charity says.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation said its annual minimum income study suggests families must earn a third more than in 2008, to live within social norms.
Rising childcare and transport costs, combined with cuts to benefits, have hit families hard, it added.
The government said it was committed to helping the UK's "most vulnerable".
The minimum income standard (MIS) study - commissioned by the charity from the social policy research unit at Loughborough University - suggests a rising number of UK people live below what the public believes is an acceptable standard of living.
This MIS standard includes earning enough to eat a balanced diet, running a car and heating the home.
Researchers questioned 21 focus groups made up of working families, pensioners and single people of working age.
A couple with two children were said to need to earn a minimum of £18,400 a year each before tax; single people £16,400 a year, while the figure for lone parent with one child is £23,900 and a pensioner couple £12,000 each."
"The study said families are being hit hard by a "dangerous cocktail" of rising costs and cuts in three main areas:
Childcare: Minimum costs have risen by nearly a third since 2008
Travel: Bus fares have doubled since the late 1990s which when combined with cuts to public transport, means families with children now deem a car as an essential item
Benefit cuts have increased earning requirements substantially, cancelling out the benefit of higher income tax thresholds
JRF chief executive Julia Unwin said families faced a "monumental task" to earn enough to get by.
"Parents facing low wages and pressure on their working time have little prospect of finding the extra money they need to meet growing household expenses.
"Many working people face the risk of sliding into poverty. It illustrates how anti-poverty measures are needed to address not just people's incomes but also the costs that they face."
The research also states that the level of Universal Credit - the government's new benefits system being brought in January 2013 - will strongly influence the ability of households to reach MIS."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18770783
Originally Posted by grahamw48
!
is, at best, a gross exaggeration ... and, at worst, nothing more than a load of old codswallop. Married couples - without kids - can live comfortably on much less than half of that amount. 
