One in six UK workers skipping meals to make ends meet, says TUC
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Trade unions body finds 17% have skipped meal in past three months, and as many as 10% do so most days. As many as one in six workers in Britain are skipping meals to make ends meet as households remain under pressure from the higher cost of groceries, energy and other essentials.
Highlighting the impact of the cost of living crisis on working households, figures from the Trades Union Congress (TUC) showed 17% of full- or part-time workers had skipped a meal to reduce their spending in the past three months. According to a survey of more than 2,500 working adults by YouGov in the week before Christmas, carried out on behalf of the trade unions’ umbrella group, as many as one in 10 said they had skipped a meal every day or most days.
The TUC said its findings showed the legacy of “14 years of Tory stagnation” and highlighted the importance of Labour’s plans to strengthen workers’ rights as part of the most radical shake-up of employment law in a generation. Keir Starmer’s government is coming under mounting pressure to find ways to grow the economy after a week of turbulence in the financial markets sent the UK’s borrowing costs to the highest levels in decades.
The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has asked her cabinet colleagues to draft plans for boosting growth amid concerns that the rise in borrowing costs, alongside a weak outlook for the economy and stubborn inflation, could force her to break her own fiscal rules.
Reeves is understood to have held meetings with business leaders last week to underscore her priority to “work in partnership” with firms. A senior Treasury source said firms had also been asked to submit their growth policy ideas, before the chancellor gives a major speech later this month.
