Cost of living rise means wages fall

Recently released statistics from the House of Commons library show that working people in the East Midlands are on average £1,404 worse off than they were at the time of the general election in May 2010 - a fall of 6.5 per cent in real terms.

The average decrease across the UK is slightly less at £1,350, which means that workers are on average earning today the same as they made in 2001.

Ashfield MP Gloria De Piero said that the figures reveal the ‘full scale of the cost of living crisis now facing families in Ashfield and across the rest of the region’.

She said: “This independent research really is shocking.

“It shows the true scale of the cost of living crisis facing ordinary people in my constituency of Ashfield and across the rest of the East Midlands and the result is that ordinary hard working families are massively out of pocket.”

Gloria has called for the introduction of a lower 10p starting rate of tax to help families and for the Government to tackle rising energy costs and to protect tax credits for working families to help alleviate the situation.

The MP added: “Prices have risen faster than wages in 36 out of the 37 months that David Cameron has been in Downing Street and this means he holds the dubious record of being the worst PM on record when it comes to living standards.”