Abstract
A FURTHER publication in the New Merseyside Series issued by the Statistics Division of the Social Science Department, University of Liverpool, deals with the cost of living of representative working-class families (Liverpool: University Press. London: Hodder and Stoughton, Ltd. Is.). A household consisting of father, mother and young children has been selected as representative, as well as a widow supporting two children of school age, and a husband and wife, both old-age pensioners. Essential needs are sub-divided under the usual five heads: food, clothing, rent and rates, fuel and light, sundries. In regard to food, the findings of the report of the British Medical Association Committee on Nutrition have been taken as one basis, but the specimen diets were modified to satisfy rationing regulations and to permit greater variety in diet and elasticity in cooking. The poverty standard selected is that adopted for the Merseyside Survey. The report indicates that between June 1933 and October 1940, expenditures showed increases of 57·5 per cent, 64 per cent and 76 per cent respectively for the family, widow with children, and old-age pensioners.
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Cost of Living for Working-Class Families. Nature 147, 384–385 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/147384e0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/147384e0