{"id":11531,"date":"2017-02-22T09:00:17","date_gmt":"2017-02-22T09:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=11531"},"modified":"2017-02-22T12:18:10","modified_gmt":"2017-02-22T12:18:10","slug":"savings-gulf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=11531","title":{"rendered":"Savings gulf"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Low income families had just \u00c2\u014195 of savings and investments to fall back on this winter, a shocking new report by insurance firm Aviva shows.<\/p>\n

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The report<\/a> laid bare the growing gulf between rich and poor<\/a>, with levels of homeownership and savings increasing amongst the former and falling for the latter.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Savings and investments excluding pensions fell from an average of \u00c2\u0141136 last winter for poor families, to just \u00c2\u014195 this winter. The average savings for wealthy families increased from \u00c2\u014150,208 to \u00c2\u014162,885 during the same period.<\/p>\n

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Despite increases for the rich, savings for UK families across the board have fallen to their lowest level in 18 months, the report said.<\/p>\n

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Aviva UK spokesman, Paul Brencher, said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe gulf between low and high income families is showing signs of widening, in a worrying indication that those less fortunate are finding their finances increasingly stretched.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhile high income families have been able to increase their savings pots, those with low incomes have seen theirs fall to less than \u00c2\u0141100.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Low income <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A quarter of UK families are now classed as low income, receiving less than \u00c2\u01411,500 a month in net earnings, the insurance firm said. Eight percent of British families are classed as high income, with net monthly earnings of more than \u00c2\u01415,000.<\/p>\n

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The number of families who own their own home has fallen to its lowest level in four years at 64 per cent, the report said. The rate of homeownership is lowest for low income families at 41 per cent, down from 43 per cent over the same period. Amongst the richest, homeownership grew from 88 percent to 90 percent.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Brencher said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bBritain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s broken housing market means becoming a homeowner is a distant dream for many families and government plans must swiftly be turned into action to stem the tide of inequality.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Many families are also increasingly worried about the affect rising levels of inflation<\/a> will have on their incomes, the report found. Forty three per cent of families surveyed by the company said inflation was among the biggest threats to their living standards<\/a> during the next three months, compared to 36 per cent in the summer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Brencher said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWith inflation climbing fast, families are understandably concerned about the impact of rising prices on the household purse. Poor returns on savings and rising inflation means families could well see their safety net eroded.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Industrial strategy call <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

To tackle rising inequality, Unite assistant general secretary, Steve Turner, said the government should end its counterproductive austerity<\/a> campaign and adopt \u00e2\u20ac\u015ban industrial strategy<\/a> which commits to the sort of mass public investment we need to kick-start the economy\u00e2\u20ac\u0165, including significant investment in council housing<\/a> stock.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He added, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe know what the problems are and we know what the solutions are \u00e2\u20ac\u201c investment in economic growth, with the wealth generated by that growth being more equally distributed, with decent work, good pay and strong trade union rights part of that.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Low income families had just \u00c2\u014195 of savings and investments to fall back on this winter, a shocking new report by insurance firm Aviva shows.   The report laid bare the growing gulf between rich and poor, with levels of homeownership and savings increasing amongst the former and falling for the latter.   Savings and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6478,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[76,691],"wps_subtitle":"Poorer families rein in saving","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11531"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11531"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11532,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11531\/revisions\/11532"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}