The cost of living crisis is officially over .... or so I'm told

Over the weekend I read the headline “Cost of living crisis, what cost of living crisis?" and "Millions of Brits book to travel the world” and this morning I wake to the news that economists are telling us the cost of living crisis is over.  So, what happens when a crisis is no longer recognised as such?

In February 2024, the final additional cost of living payments were distributed to eligible households. That £299 was the third of three payments targeted to help low-income individuals cope amid the sky-high cost of living. The next month, in March 2024, then-Tory Minister Andrea Leadsom proudly proclaimed that the cost-of-living crisis “is ending” and that we all needed to just “cheer up”.

Since then, I’ve seen very little from the Government to indicate things will be improving matters anytime soon.   Whilst I am relieved the proposed £5 billion cuts to welfare will be significantly curtailed, there is an ever present threat to our most vulnerable citizens as the government grapples with a persistent black hole in the country’s finances.

Go back three years and it felt as if you couldn’t switch on the news on the TV or radio, or pick up a newspaper without hearing the phrases ‘cost-of-living crisis’ and ‘rising inflation’. Now, the zeitgeist has moved on, and other issues have come to the fore. The BBC News website has removed its dedicated cost-of-living tab from its main menu and has not published new content since the Spring Statement, and before that not since 2024 and yet, the Resolution Foundation tells us as recently as June 2025

“Higher energy costs, coupled with rapid food inflation, have led to hardship for many. Energy arrears more than doubled in real terms between the end of 2019 and the end of 2024 (from £1.6 billion to £3.9 billion), while the share of working-age adults in very low food security rose from 3.9 per cent to 6.0 per cent between 2021-22 and 2023-24, with the rate for children climbing from 5.6 per cent to 9.4 per cent”.

So is the cost-of-living crisis over? For millions of people across the country, forgotten by the media, it is still very real indeed.

Research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that as of April 2025, families have not recovered from the double-blow of the Covid-19 pandemic and cost-of-living crisis triggered by high inflation amongst other factors. The average amount of available disposable income for an average family in 2025 is a whopping £400 lower than it was the same time five years ago and JRF’s research predicts things are going to get worse, not better

Post-pandemic, debt has become a growing problem - customers repaid £796m of debt in January 2024 – 43% more than 2021. Research by Society Matters cic shows that working people have depleted their savings and have turned to credit and borrowing to weather the storm of the cost-of-living crisis. As price rises for low-income families outstrip wage rises, families are still struggling to provide the basics; food, shelter and heating. It’s still happening, but it seems to have dropped from headlines completely.

You have to ask why?

The incessant way that current affairs media works certainly increases the spotlight our politicians are placed under, but it demands a constant stream of sensationalist headlines and news stories every day. In doing so, it is encouraging complacency and leaving stories, and people, behind.

The phenomenon, dubbed ‘crisis fatigue’ or even the more worrying ‘compassion fatigue’, sees people incapable of engaging with the full spectrum of challenging news coming their way – war, genocide, discrimination, protest, environmental disaster, political instability, economic uncertainty and a whole lot more. How many issues can one person fully focus upon before they burn out?

Additionally, we see the so-called ‘politics of disruption’ performed expertly in the USA and increasingly across Europe. If you fill the news cycle with enough objectionable noise, people will eventually tune out and democratic scrutiny dies. We become a population numb to the relentless waves of drama and suffering, seemingly helpless to have any agency in our own existence.

Inevitably, this leads to us grasping any crumb of consolation and taking comfort from it, for example a headline suggesting ‘inflation is holding steady at just under 4%’ hides when the reality is it’s gone up by around 25% over the last three to four years, and we see a modest increase in benefits and wages and we are happy to condemn the cost-of-living crisis to a mental cul-de-sac. Done. Finished.  And yet, the number of children living in poverty and experiencing food insecurity continues to rise with a 40 per cent rise in the number of children (from 810,000 to 1.1 million children) whose households have turned to food banks over the last 12 months.

In reality, the fixes offered haven’t even touched the sides of the real problem. Think of it as ten steps back, one step forward – but misleading headlines in some of our media both printed and digital would have us believe that small amount of forward movement constitutes victory.

Taking all of this into consideration, how on Earth can we keep a rounded, realist perspective on the news, in this time of crisis fatigue?

First, try to consume media in a moderated way, considering a range of sources from reputable organisations, look for the source of the data, is it credible, easily located and understandable or cloaked in obscurity? – and consider long-form journalism as a way to avoid losing nuance. Long-form storytelling is also more likely to help offer practical solutions which discuss the possible options for change and improvement and may even give you suggestions for additional reading and reference.

Second, remember that just because a story is no longer in the news cycle or appearing in a way which does not meet your lived experience, it doesn’t mean it’s no longer happening or that your experience isn’t valid. If governments and media outlets won't keep this issue front and centre, then communities, charities, and individuals will need to do so, but this comes at a cost to the charity and their exposure is limited, you may have to go and find them yourself to be sure about what’s happening at ground level.

Citizens Advice, Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Resolution Foundation are I my view credible sources all of which I’ve drawn on for this article. I hope they offer a good starting point if you’d like to learn more but there are loads of knowledgeable and credible organisations out there publishing research and commentary in this space – but even charities have bias, we all do, it’s an inevitability so if this is something you’re concerned about check whose behind them and importantly who is funding them. If you can’t easily find this information that may be a red flag, maybe not crimson, but definitely on the red side of pink!

And most importantly, become critical of the media you are consuming. Who benefits from that headline? Why have I been sent this news? What sort of emotion is it designed to create? This is a whole topic of its own so my next article is going to deal with it in detail, but in the meantime it really is worth checking out the  Radio 4 series on BBC Sounds – More of Less: Behind the Stats which in my view does an excellent job of bringing to the fore the incessant spinning of statistics, headlines and untruths that have become so commonplace in our news feeds. Also, Sky News offered some coverage on this today which I thought was well balanced.

For now, remember that while the cost-of-living crisis may currently feel out of sight, we must not let it drift out of mind because people are still suffering, and for low income families with children in particular this crisis is far from over. Accepting this as the ‘New Normal’ is how systemic inequalities become embedded permanently and this is a reality we must always fight against.  So, think about where you get your news, it's very easy when we doom scroll to absorb a whole lot of twaddle.