You can find the whole spotlight here: www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications...

Uprating is also essential to help families keep up with ever-increasing costs: the overall price level has risen by 25 per cent since July 2021, while food prices have risen by 38 per cent and energy has risen by 55 per cent.

The increase in UC is desperately needed: the value of the UC standard allowance fell by 10 per cent in real-terms between 2012-13 and 2025-26; the April 2026 increase of 6.2 per cent will undo just two-fifths of that fall (40 per cent).

But not all the benefit system will rise with inflation. LHA rates are frozen as default. The UC health element for new recipients will be halved from 2026-27; for existing recipients, it will rise by 1.5 per cent, so that the sum of UC standard allowance and UC health rise by inflation.

In fact, Universal Credit is due to rise by more than inflation in April 2026, part of the Government’s plans to rebalance social security spending away from health-related benefits. As a result, the UC standard allowance will rise by 6.2 per cent in April 2026.

September’s inflation data shows the annual rate of CPI inflation was 3.8 per cent, the same rate it was in August 2025, but over twice its September 2024 level. This grim news came with a silver lining as September inflation is usually used to uprate most benefits the following April.

We wrote more about the rising cost of essentials, and how to help people cope with them here www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications...

Because poorer households were spending a higher proportion of their income on things like food and energy that saw larger price rises, they also faced higher rates of inflation than higher-income households did during the cost of living crisis.

Given that context, it’s not surprising to see that low-income households were spending a higher proportion of their consumption on essentials such as food and energy, with the poorest fifth spending double the proportion of their consumption on energy compared to the richest fifth.

The 2023-24 financial year was the second of the cost of living crisis, with inflation averaging 5.7% and the energy price cap peaking at over £2,000 in Q2 of 2023.

There’s some notable issues with the LCFS data: the response rate is only 28%, far below the pre-covid rate (and it was falling before covid too). The LCFS also undercounts consumption compared to the ONS’ National Accounts data – another source of consumption data, and this has worsened over time.

@simonpittaway.bsky.social and I have a report on the rising cost of essentials like food, and how best to support people with them. Making benefit uprating more timely and frequent would help low-income households be more resistant to higher prices. www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications...