19: Will the rising cost of living be paid for by our health? – with Dame Clare Moriarty and Bim Afolami MP

This year households across the UK are facing the biggest squeeze in living standards since the 1950s. Most of us will feel the impact, but poor households are being hit the hardest. We know that poverty and the stress of debt harms our health in the short and long term. 

One role of the state is to provide a welfare safety net. After last month's Spring Statement, what should the government do now to support those experiencing the worst effects of rising costs? What impact on households and health are we already seeing? And what more can be done to help?

Our Chief Executive Dr Jennifer Dixon discusses this with expert guests:

Dame Clare Moriarty is chief executive of Citizen’s Advice. She’s a former senior civil servant and served as permanent secretary at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Department for Exiting the European Union. She was also chair of our COVID-19 Impact Inquiry. 

Bim Afolami MP has been the Conservative MP for Hitchin and Harpenden since 2017. He's on the advisory board of the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute and is chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Financial Markets and Service. He's also patron of two mental health charities in his constituency.

Show notes

The Health Foundation (2022) Response to the Spring Statement

Resolution Foundation (2022) Inflation Nation: Putting Spring Statement 2022 in context

Institute for Fiscal Studies (2022) Analysis of the Spring Statement

The Health Foundation (2022) Debt

The Health Foundation (2022) Debt and health

The Health Foundation (2020) Living in poverty was bad for your health long before COVID-19

Financial Times (2022) Chancellor provides minimal help to households on cost of living crisis

The Trussell Trust (2022) Debt to government, deductions and destitution