Higher benefits were the only thing that kept household incomes above water in the last throes of Keir Starmer‘s premiership.
The ex-PM had targeted the metric of real household disposable incomes (RHDI) per head growing over the Parliament.
RHDI per head is a measure of what is left after taxes and benefits and the effects of inflation.
Sir Keir’s goal was widely regarded as unambitious, as it has risen in every Parliament for 50 years – and even stayed flat between 2019 and 2024, which was blighted by Covid and the Ukraine war.
Official figures released today show that RHDI per head has dropped
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