UK’s Cost-of-living Crisis, High Prices to Cause Thousands of Premature Deaths: Study

Tuesday, 26 September 2023 2:23 AM 

This file photo shows a customer shopping at a Sainsbury's supermarket in Walthamstow, East London, on February 13, 2022. (Photo by AFP)

A new study has shown that Britain’s cost-of-living crisis that mainly results from the government’s economic policy is set to cause premature deaths among thousands of people this year.

The results of the research were published by the BMJ Public Health journal on Monday, as millions of Britons are facing levels of inflation not seen since the 1970s as a result of the war in Ukraine, Brexit and the government's economic policy.

The study showed that the cost-of-living crisis and sustained period of high prices will reduce life expectancy among the people across the country by 6.5 percent this year. 

The predicted increase in premature deaths – from a baseline 463 per 100,000 people to 493 per 100,000 – equates to thousands of extra deaths a year in the UK, the study said.

It added that the most deprived households will experience four times the number of extra deaths than the wealthiest households, with the poorest having to spend a larger proportion of their income on energy, the cost of which has soared.

A UK parliamentary committee has heard from the CEOs of some of the country’s major supermarkets which have been accused of grotesque profiteering in the middle of a cost of living crisis.

According to last month’s figures, the UK's inflation stood at 6.7 percent. Although it was down from a high of 11.1 percent, Britain's inflation still remains the highest among the member states of the Group of 7.

The researchers said, “The mortality impacts of inflation and real-terms income reduction are likely to be large and negative, with marked inequalities in how these are experienced.”

“Implemented public policy responses are not sufficient to protect health and prevent widening inequalities,” they added.

The new study came after the UK-based consumer association ‘Which’ warned last month that rising food prices had forced low-income households in the country to make “desperate choices” between keeping up their bills and putting food on the table.

The Which consumer association says the rising cost of essentials are disproportionally affecting low-income households.

The ‘Which’ research said the rising cost of essentials is disproportionally affecting low-income households.