Britons Face New Era of Austerity

[xchrom]

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/12/01-0

As up to 2 million public-sector workers took to streets across Britain to protest against pension changes, a leading think tank warned that families will be worse off in 2016 than they were 14 years earlier as they cope with more than a decade of austerity.

High inflation, cuts and the longest period of wage stagnation on record would cause the spending power of the average British family to plummet over the next five years, the Institute for Fiscal Studies warned.

Its analysis predicted that average incomes, adjusted for inflation, will fall by 3 per cent this year and further in 2012.

Institute director Paul Johnson said: ''In the period 2009-10 to 2012-13, real median household incomes will drop by a whopping 7.4 per cent - a record matched only by the falls seen between 1974 and 1977.''