<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span style="line-height:150%"><span style="font-family:SimSun"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif"><span style="color:#0e101a">Households experiencing relative income poverty before the outbreak (assessed from 2016 to 2019) experienced the greatest increases in privation when the pandemic first started. Almost all of the indicators showed minimal change in households that were not poor before the pandemic. The percentage of poor households that were behind on their bills increased from 15% in 2018–19 to 22% in April–May 2020, compared to a considerably lower increase from 5% to 6% in pre-pandemic households.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span style="line-height:150%"><span style="font-family:SimSun"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif"><span style="color:#0e101a">The UK was already suffering from poverty but the pandemic has exacerbated the situation. The country is gradually returning to normal as the lockdown is lifted. The UK government must, however, do something to alleviate poverty.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
