The cost-of-living crisis is having a disproportionate impact on Black and minority ethnic people, new research has revealed.
A new report from the Runnymede Trust shows that Black and minority ethnic people are 2.5 times more likely to be in relative poverty than their white counterparts.
They are also 2.2 times more likely to be in deep poverty – defined as having an income that falls more than 50% below the relative poverty line – than white people.
The trust’s research also found that racial inequalities were most pronounced in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Yorkshire and the Humber.
The over-representation of Black and minority ethnic people among the lowest-income groups means that they are currently experiencing much higher levels of food insecurity, material deprivation and fuel poverty amid the cost-of-living crisis.
Dr Halima Begum, CEO of the Runnymede Trust, said: ‘The growing rates of poverty outlined in our briefing, in the world’s fifth largest economy, are simply unconscionable. We talk about this cost-of-living crisis in universal terms. No one is immune from the consequences. However, what’s clear from this research is that some groups are less equal and more impacted than others, including our black and minority ethnic communities.
‘The pandemic made abundantly clear that when a crisis hits, support needs to be targeted urgently towards those who will be worst affected, usually those at the intersection of multiple structural inequalities. More must be done not just to stave off but to reset the economy in light of a catastrophe that is snowballing, fast.’
Dr Begum continued: ‘In funding the energy price cap through public borrowing, offering tax cuts for the wealthiest and lifting the cap on bankers’ bonuses, the Government is doing little to demonstrate its willingness to prioritise the solutions that will be increasingly and desperately needed by our multi-ethnic working class.
‘Without continued and significant public investment in social security and infrastructures, and tailored commitments to job security and fair wages, Black and minority ethnic communities in particular will continue to face hardships unknown for generations.’
