“This Autumn Statement tackles some of the problems facing struggling families.
“It is good that government is willing to take action on failing consumer markets, including energy and letting agents, and tackle issues around pension scams. Banning letting agent fees will save renters money and ending pension cold calls will help to protect consumers.
“Government does need to look at how it can intervene in the energy market to help customers who are on a low income but paying high bills, there is also the need to look at problems in other markets, such as mobile and broadband. People are losing up to £23billion a year, that’s around £446 each - equivalent to the average weekly wage, from consumer issues and we help hundreds of thousands of people a year who find businesses are letting them down.
“Rights and enforcement are two sides of the same coin and it’s good to see the government investing in making sure people get paid the wage they’ve earned. There is an opportunity to go further by increasing enforcement across other employment rights - like sick pay and maternity leave - and make it easier for workers to challenge exploitative employers by lowering Employment Tribunal fees.
“Reducing the Universal Credit taper rate shows an encouraging change of tack from the government - putting money into welfare instead of taking more out. Helping people on Universal Credit get the most from their earnings is the right intention but it won’t fully offset the cuts to the work allowance.
“Going forward we hope to see the government build on today’s announcements and take further action to help just managing families by improving the security of people’s income and tackling failing consumer markets.”