There is hope. The government took action to reduce energy bills and it had an impact.

Introduce an Affordable Energy Guarantee that provides a portion of cheaper energy to all households www.jrf.org.uk/cost-of-livi...

Control the growth of private rents and re-link Local Housing Allowance to private rental costs www.jrf.org.uk/housing/how-...

Reform Universal Credit and introduce an independent process so we can all afford the essentials www.jrf.org.uk/social-secur...

A record number of families are going without the essentials, our research finds. That's 7.4 million households. New PM Andy Burnham has promised to put tackling the cost of living "front and centre" of his government. Bold policy choices are needed to make that happen:

🚨 Last chance to sign up! Tomorrow, 1-2pm, join us, @nationwidefdtn.bsky.social and Frameworks UK for a webinar on how to talk about homes and immigration. We'll share ways to frame your comms to get the changes needed to improve our housing system. Don't miss out! Register here: bit.ly/4vgiiyV

🚨 New report out today! Disabled people in Northern Ireland are almost 2x as likely to live in poverty as non-disabled people, in some of the first research of it's kind in NI. Hear @sheenamcmullen.bsky.social and Christine Ellison set out their findings and what can be done 👇

Energy bills are still far too high. JRF’s new Affordable Energy Guarantee would give every household a protected amount of cheaper energy, cutting bills now and protecting people from future shocks. For the lowest-income households, the savings would be worth over a month’s free energy.

📆 27th May at 10am Join us and @Autonomy_Inst for a discussion of last week's rent controls briefing! We'll set out the findings, including the scale of returns many landlords generate, as well as the impact of interest rates on these profits. Sign up: https://bit.ly/49a5qlx

🔎 Any party serious about tackling the cost of living needs to make rents more affordable, and our research shows that rent controls are feasible and merit serious consideration. Read our full report, the first in our ‘Ending the Rent Squeeze’ programme: www.jrf.org.uk/housing/how-...

🔒 This would help to keep landlords with mortgages in the sector and protect them from making losses. Landlords who own outright, who our research shows making the highest returns, would be taxed slightly more, capturing their inordinate profits and making the system fairer.

📊 Action to control rents could make a significant impact on affordability in the nearer term. We modelled savings between 2025/26 and 2030/31: - If increases were limited to CPI in tenancy and CPI +2% in between - If increases were frozen in tenancy and CPI +2% in between

Over the same period, the size of the PRS has grown significantly - Between 2000 and 2020, 2.7m more homes were added to the private rented sector 🏘️ Action on rents should therefore be a key priority for the government.

Private renters have seen their living standards squeezed by consistently high rents relative to incomes for the past 20 years. 📈 This has driven rising levels of insecurity, poverty and homelessness.

🚨 NEW! Our report out today concludes rent controls can ease the pressure on renters, without jeopardising the private rented sector. A rent control could: - Make renters nearly £1200 a year better off by 2030 - Reduce the housing benefit bill by £600m, even with annual LHA uprating Here's how 👇

Join us, @nationwidefdtn.bsky.social and Frameworks UK for a webinar on how to talk about homes and immigration. 📆 10 June, 1-2pm We'll share ways to frame your comms to tap into collective and systemic thinking, offering practical guidance for your work. Sign up: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

As part of our analysis, we also compared a range of policy options to see how much households in different income deciles would fare 👇

If a persistent crisis increases prices or reduces employment/earnings, the outlook for incomes might be even worse. ⚡️Our Principal Policy Adviser @chrisbelfield.bsky.social suggests one possible policy option for a future energy system that rebuilds the economic security of households.

📊 A big change to the way official poverty statistics are constructed comes into effect this year. Family Resources Survey responses and official government benefit records will now be linked for the first time. 📝 In this short explainer video, we take you through what the changes mean.

Julian Hartley has been named the next permanent Chief Executive of the @jrf-uk.bsky.social)/JRHT group. Most recently, Julian led the CQC. He will be based out of the group’s York headquarters and will start work on 5 May.

🔔 New analysis alert! Our modelling finds that average annual household disposable incomes are projected to grow by just £40 over the course of the current parliament (from April 2024 to April 2029) after adjusting for inflation.

JRF and @cordisbright.bsky.social found that the average hidden cost to care providers for each care worker vacancy is £9,282.

It’s right that the Government will improve care worker pay through Fair Pay Agreements. Care workers aren’t paid enough for the important work they do. But as well as the cost to care workers, there’s also the hidden cost of low pay. A 🧵

📅 Coming soon! Our Talking About Homes webinar series with Frameworks and @nationwidefdtn.bsky.social returns on 12 March. We'll share insights into how people’s thinking has shifted in the past 4 years - and what this means for communicators. Register now 🔽 https://bit.ly/4rNrsRW

Overall, nearly four in 10 (37.5%) of the UK population was living below MIS in 2023/24. This is the highest level recorded since the research began in 2008/09.

Certain groups are particularly affected: Single parents working full-time: 59.5% (up from 28.7%). Self-employed or part-time single adults without children: 53.0% below MIS (up from 44.5% in 2008/09). Couples without children, not both full-time: 46.3% (up from 40.6%).

More than two-thirds of households struggling to afford a decent life are in work. New research from @lborouniversity.bsky.social funded by JRF, sets out the scale of the problem. A 🧵

🫂 'Without stronger support, poverty rates for carers will continue to be higher' In the final of our short videos for #UKPoverty2026, Lead Analyst @datataha.bsky.social explains that carers face a far higher rate of poverty than those who don't have caring responsibilities 👇

🛒 'Nobody should have to skip meals to pay the bills’ Senior Analyst Andrew Wenham lays out results from our recent cost-of-living tracker and how they interact with our findings in #UKPoverty2026. The government must invest in social security to ensure no-one is going without the essentials 🔽

Disabled people have a poverty rate 8 percentage points higher than people with no disability. 🗣️ Hear Lead Analyst @datataha.bsky.social set out some of the additional structural barriers that disabled people face, and why the government must increase their support. 👇