Nearly half of UK families cutting back on food or clothing to pay rent or mortgage

MILLIONS of British families are cutting back on the bare essentials in order to pay for their housing, a new study suggests.

Joint research by housing charity Shelter and pollsters YouGov found that 44 per cent of households – the equivalent of 3.7million families – admitted being forced to slash spending on food and clothes.

The survey of more than 1,500 working families with children aged up to 18 found that around one in five confessed to cutting back on buying their kids clothes in order to pay rent or bills.

And roughly one in ten said they had skipped meals to save money in the last year.

The shocking statistics reveal the everyday struggle of working Brits with the average household now spending 29 per cent of its income on housing costs.

Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter, said the charity spoke to parents “every day” who “live in constant fear that a cut in hours could tip them into homelessness”.

He said: “These figures are an acute reminder of the tough choices that working families are having to make to keep a roof over their children’s heads.

“Any one of us could hit a bump along life’s road.

“But with housing now taking up the lion’s share of people’s pay-packets, any drop in income can all too quickly leave families at risk of losing their home.

“With millions of working families struggling and a period of economic uncertainty ahead, now is the time for the new government to both protect and improve our welfare safety net so that it can be there to support families who fall on hard times.”

A Government spokesman said: “Building the homes this country needs is an absolute priority for the government and we’ve set out the most ambitious housing programme in a generation – including doubling the affordable housing budget to £8bn for 400,000 more homes.

“There are more people in work than ever before, millions have had a pay rise through the national living wage, and we continue to spend around £90bn a year on working age benefits – including around £25bn in Housing Benefit – to ensure a strong safety net for the most vulnerable.”

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