Single parent households have savings 20 times lower than the UK average

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Single-parent households are facing an uphill battle to make ends meet this year, with about 5% of the average savings for all household types needed to offset rising energy, food and fuel bills

Single-parent households, which have been hardest hit by the cost-of-living crisis, have 20 times less savings than the UK average, new figures show.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show a single parent with dependent children had just £400 in savings for the Covid pandemic (April 2019 to March 2020).

The average for all households was £8,000 – 20 times higher, Labor analysis shows.

This means these single-parent households will have to struggle this year to make ends meet, with about 5% of the average savings for all household types to offset rising energy, food and fuel bills.

As payrolls fall for the first time since the Conservative government raised Social Security, millions of British families are discovering how much money Ministers have stolen from their pockets.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak earlier this week dismissed calls for more measures to support families with the rising cost of living as “stupid”.

Tory Cabinet Secretary Jacob Rees Mogg told Mirror Shadow Women and Equality Secretary Anneliese Dodds: “Conservatives think it’s ‘stupid’ to do more to help families with mounting bills.

“Labour is calling for an emergency budget to take sensible, costly and practical measures to support households, including cutting energy bills by up to £600, paid for via a windfall tax on oil and gas companies.”

Around four in ten people have already indicated that they have bought less groceries in the last two weeks due to the rising cost of living.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that 39% of adults have downsized their grocery stores, up from 34% two weeks ago and 18% at the start of the year.

The proportion of adults who believe they will not be able to save any money in the next 12 months has also risen to 42% from 34% in November.

Downing Street has confirmed the Prime Minister will chair a committee to draw up a plan to tackle the rising cost of living, weeks after Mr Sunak’s disastrous spring declaration did little to help the poorest households.

Millionaire Tory minister Jacob Rees Mogg admitted to the Mirror that he too has seen his energy bills soar but insisted the government should not spend more money to deal with the crisis.

Asked if he supports Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s handling of the crisis, he instead called him a “brilliant man”.