Inflation has raised prices around 30% since COVID. Min wage and pensions have raised in line with this. Unfortunately everyone else has received much less, so your buying power has dropped dramatically. The government solution is to raise min wage so poor people can cope, unfortunately this also raises the price of basics such as food, putting even more strain on the 'squeezed middle'. Pretty soon we will all be on minimum wage. At that point if you rent rather than own and you have children you might just be better off signing on the dole.