Coalition tax and benefit changes – and a switch from using the retail price index to the consumer price index for calculating means-tested benefits - could drive up levels of absolute and relative poverty, a report by the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) has claimed.
According to the IFS, median income is set to shrink by 7% in real terms until 2012/13, the largest three-year fall for 35 years, and absolute poverty could rise to affect a further 600,000 children and 800,000 working-age adults.
