UK FACT CHECK POLITICS
UK FACT CHECK POLITICS
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QUOTE From: Budget 2026 live: Latest updates, analysis and fact checks

OBR: living standards per person just 1% above pre-pandemic level by 2029-30

The OBR forecasts that real household disposable income per person will be just 1% above its pre-pandemic level by 2029-30. The figure comes from its Economic and Fiscal Outlook, as quoted in The Guardian's Budget live blog.

"10 years on from the onset of the pandemic, RHDI per person would be just 1 per cent higher than its pre-pandemic level"

According to the OBR, growth in this measure averaged about a quarter of a per cent a year in the 10 years to 2025-26. It forecasts an average of less than 0.1% a year in the 10 years to 2029-30.

Brit Brief gives the average for the earlier decade as 0.3% a year.

PA reported earlier that the OBR expects household disposable income to be 2% above pre-pandemic levels by 2030-31. That figure is for a later year, so the two do not contradict each other.

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