After six years of falling living standards, weekly earnings have finally overtaken inflation, according to the latest data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS).
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) fell to 1.6% in the year to March, as weekly wages, including bonuses, rose 1.7% in the three months to February reflecting an improvement in standards of living for the first time since the financial collapse in 2008, except a very brief period in 2010.
Beneath these headline figures, however, wages without bonuses included only rose 1.4% for the same period, meaning that the improvements in living standards are still far from universal.
People are also not expected to see their real incomes return to 2009-10 levels until 2018 at the earliest, according to the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR).
