Cost of basics required to ‘live with dignity’ jumped last year, research suggests

The cost of a basket of goods needed to allow people to “live with dignity” has jumped by more than 10 per cent over the last 12 months with the rate of increase in cities climbing by almost 13 per cent, according to research published on Thursday by a unit of the Society of St Vincent de Paul.

The research, conducted by the Vincentian Minimum Essential Standard of Living (MESL) Research Centre, also suggests that the cost of basic items has climbed by close to 20 per cent over the last three years.

The report found that in the 12 months to the end of March costs of essentials increased by an average of 10.6 per cent nationally with urban households facing price jumps of 12.9 per cent, more than twice the 5.7 per cent increase recorded for rural households.

It said the rates of increase recorded were substantially higher than official figures “due to the sensitivity of the MESL basket to changes in food and energy prices”.

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The double-digit cost increases have been largely driven by the rising cost of home energy over the last two years and food in the year to March 2023, said the MESL research manager Robert Thornton.

“The MESL provides an evidence-based indicator of the current cost of the goods and services required to enable a socially acceptable minimum standard of living. In this way, the MESL expenditure data serves as a benchmark to assess the adequacy of social welfare supports and the national minimum wage,” he added.

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He noted that the cost of the food basket the non-governmental organisation (NGO) measures has increased by an average of 20.8 per cent, in the year to March 2023 with the MESL food basket more exposed to increases in staples such as milk, butter and bread which have all climbed significantly in price.

“Cumulatively, from March 2020 to March 2023, the MESL home energy costs increased by 117.1 per cent for urban based households and by 75.8 per cent for rural based households,” Mr Thornton said.

The majority of MESL basket categories showed an increase in costs. However for rural based households, both transport and car insurance showed decreases of 0.9 per cent and 5.7 per cent respectively. Education is notable with an average decrease of 6 per cent, primarily due to the introduction of the new Free Primary Schoolbooks Scheme.

The report also identifies the rising risk of energy poverty as a result of the base rate of income supports generally, and particularly energy-related supports “not being maintained relative to rising energy and minimum living costs”.

According to the NGO while the extraordinary inflation levels peaked in October 2022, the current levels remain extremely high. The current forecasts indicate the potential for approximately 6.3 per cent increase in MESL costs over the remainder of 2023 and into 2024.