Renters and disabled adults more likely to face cost-of-living squeeze – ONS

Around half of renters and disabled adults in the UK do not feel able to save any money in the year ahead, according to stark new analysis.

Disabled adults who are renters, single-parent households, and black and Asian households are among the groups of people more likely to run into financial difficulty, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found in analysis of its surveys.

About 54% of renters do not think they will be able to save any money in the next 12 months amid the tougher economic climate, with prices continuing to climb.

It is higher than the 36% of mortgage holders who said so, and 39% across the general population.

The figure leaps to 63% among disabled adults who are renting, according to the ONS’s analysis of surveys conducted between July and October.

It comes as private rental prices paid by tenants have risen by more than 6% in the year to October, the biggest jump since the ONS started tracking prices in 2016.

Renters were significantly more likely than mortgage holders to report experiencing an increase in their payments, despite mortgage costs soaring over the past two years.

But many homeowners have so far been insulated from interest rates rising because they agreed to borrow money at a fixed rate, meaning they have not experienced a big increase in their monthly payments, the ONS said.

Meanwhile, about 5% of adults reported that, in the past two weeks, they or their household had run out of food and could not afford to buy more.

The figure soars to more than a quarter of single-parent households who admitted to running out of food.

Asian or Asian British adults were also more likely to report difficulty affording their rent or mortgage payments, with more than half saying so compared with less than two fifths of white adults.

Elsewhere in its analysis, the ONS found that two thirds of disabled adults who are renting said they would not be able to afford an unexpected expense of £850.

It is more than double the 29% of adults across the UK who said so.

The findings come as inflation in the UK has begun to drop sharply, with energy and food inflation coming down.

Nevertheless, food and non-alcoholic drink prices were still more than a 10th higher in October than the year before, according to official figures.

Food and non-alcoholic drinks are now the largest contributor to lower-income households facing higher levels of inflation, the ONS revealed.