Living costs have risen 25% in the past five years and placed an "unprecedented" financial burden on the poor, a report has found.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) said rising costs of childcare and energy, coupled with stagnating wages and benefit cuts, had created a widening poverty gap.

Worst affected are pensioners and single people, it said.

The Adam Smith Institute said the report should focus on housing costs.

The Minimum Income Standard (MIS), released on Friday, looks into goods and services the public think people need in order to have a minimum acceptable standard of living.

Report author Donald Hirsch said: "From this April, for the first time since the 1930s, benefits are being cut in real terms by not being linked to inflation.

"This combined with falling real wages means that the next election is likely to be the first since 1931 when living standards are lower than at the last one."

"This year's report demonstrates how the price of a basket of goods needed for an acceptable living standard has risen far faster than average inflation.

"This has combined with low pay increases to create a widening gap between income and needs."

but the banksters and large tax avoidance companies/utilities are doing all right ...