Spending on alcohol and tobacco rates 4th highest in beneficiary households. No other household has a rating this high.
In absolute terms most other household types are spending more on alcohol and tobacco but it's lower down the list of items usually appearing 6th or 7th.
The other stand-out obviously is housing. All households bar the highest income/expenditure have housing as their number one cost - even Superannuitants, which is a worry. But the graph above has a pattern unlike any other in that all of the expenditures are close to the left (bar food) with housing hard to the right. Note the vast difference when compared to the highest income group:
Going back to the problem of housing making poor people poorer, look at the change for beneficiaries since 2008:
If I was on a benefit under this scenario I'd be prioritizing alcohol and tobacco too (notwithstanding rising accommodation supplement is meeting some of the increased housing cost).
The housing market is in a real mess. And it happened under a National government. After Labour set up the stifling regulations.
2 comments:
"After Labour set up the stifling regulations."
Well, they both did that.
BTW, your top graph confirms just how utterly reliant beneficiaries are on the whims of government:
They receive all their money from government. And then their four highest spends are all made higher by government: either by regulation, or by excise tax.
They are thoroughly soaked in government, who are demonstrably not making their lives better for that.
On a different point - Interesting that there is almost no spending on education!
Post a Comment