Cost of living crisis: ONS reviews inflation accounts after Jack Monroe campaign | inflation

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Concern that rising inflation is having a disproportionate impact on people in poor households in the UK has prompted government figures involved in providing a more detailed cost-of-living analysis.

The Office for National Statistics said that before everyone had their own inflation rate, it would do more to capture the impact of price increases on different income groups.

Mike Hardy, head of inflation statistics at the Office for National Statistics, said in a blog that the published annual inflation rate – currently 5.4% – was average for all households. But everyone has their own personal inflation rate. Some people may spend a greater percentage of their income on gas, electricity or petrol if you commute by car every day.”

The move was welcomed by food writer and activist Jack Monroe, who revealed how the prices of cheaper food products rose as availability decreased, contributing to increased hunger and poverty.

Monroe, who is an inflation indicator for tracking staple food prices, tweeted: “Glad to tell you that ONS just announced that they will change the way they collect and report food cost prices and inflation to take into account a broader range of income levels and household conditions.”

I am happy to be able to tell you that ONS just announced that they will change the way they collect and report the cost of food prices and inflation to take into account a wider range of income levels and family circumstances 👊 #VimesBootsIndex

– Jack Monroe (@BootstrapCook) Jan 26, 2022

“In 2012, 10 stock cubes from Sainsbury’s Basics were 10p. In 2022, the same broth cubes were 39p, but only available in chicken or beef. The cheapest vegetable broth cubes, for a reason,” Munro said in his Observer book last week. Incomprehensible, £1 for 10.

“Last year, Smart Price pasta at local Asda was 29p for 500g. Today it’s out of stock, so the cheapest bag is 70p; product price is 141% higher in colored packages.”

Terry Pratchett’s ownership allowed Monroe to use the Vimes Boots index as the name for a new price index, which aims to document “maliciously creeping prices” of basic food products.

Monroe said the index will be called the Vimes Boots Index in honor of Pratchett’s innovation Sam Vimes, who in the novel Discworld Men at Arms laid out “Sam Vimes’ Boots” theory of social and economic injustice.

The author’s daughter, writer Rianna Pratchett, said her father would have been proud to see his work used in this way by anti-poverty advocates.

The Office for National Statistics previously published a more detailed breakdown of inflation but it was put on hold during the Covid pandemic because many items were not available. During the previous economic downturn, the 2008-2009 financial crisis, when inflation also rose, the Office for National Statistics said poor households were hardest hit.

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“Given the level of interest in cost of living and inflation, we plan to restart this series,” Hardy said.

In the long run, he added, the Office for National Statistics was “changing” the way it measures prices in order to understand people’s spending patterns in a more detailed and timely manner. ONS measures inflation by looking at the cost of 700 items from a number of price points.

“We are currently developing radical new plans to dramatically increase the number of price points per month from 180,000 to hundreds of millions, using prices sent to us directly from supermarket checkouts,” Hardy said.

“This means that we will not only include one apple in a store … but how much each apple costs, and how many of each type were purchased, in many other stores in each region of the country.”

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