Cost of 'living with dignity' has risen 20% in three years

'The analysis finds that cost of the MESL food basket has increased by an average of 20.8%, in the year to March 2023.'

The cost for households to afford to “live with dignity” has risen almost 20% in the last three years, with the last 12 months seeing inflation heap “relentless” pressure on families.

The latest paper from St Vincent de Paul’s Minimum Essential Standard of Living (MESL) research centre found the cost of living to basic standards had risen more for families in rural areas in the last year.

It comes at a time of “exceptional increases in living costs, which is placing particularly acute pressure on the cost of a socially acceptable minimum standard of living”, it said.

MESL is the standard of living which no one should be expected to live below and is a minimum standard for everyone, not just those in poverty.

Taking a sample of 214 household cases, the charity found deep income inadequacy has almost doubled in the last year to 59% of such cases.

“The incidence of deep income inadequacy has now spread to a wider range of household types and compositions,” the report said. 

“There has also been a deepening of the inadequacy found amongst households with older children and one-adult-headed households as social welfare meets a lower proportion of MESL need.” 

The increase in the MESL in the year to March 2023 was 10.6% nationally, with home energy and the food shop the biggest drivers.

MESL research manager Robert Thornton said: “The analysis finds that cost of the MESL food basket has increased by an average of 20.8%, in the year to March 2023. The MESL food basket is more exposed to increases in staples such as milk, butter and bread which have each increased significantly in price.” 

The other elephant in the room — energy bills — also shows a huge increase which is eating into stretched household budgets. The report said the higher energy costs are associated with a rising risk of energy poverty.

Income supports generally, and particularly energy-related supports, are not being maintained relative to rising energy and minimum-living costs, he added.

It was also cautioned that while the “extraordinary inflation levels” peaked in October 2022, the current levels remain “extremely high”.