Life in UK costs £13k

A minimum standard of living costs £13,400 before tax, leaving pensioners and many on benefits in poverty.

Research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation finds a couple with two children need £370 a week and a pensioner couple need £201.

A single person without children needs to spend £158 a week.

For families with no adult working, state benefits provide for less than half the minimum budget for single people and around two-thirds for those with children.

The basic state pension provides a retired couple with about three-quarters of the minimum, but for those claiming the means-tested Pension Credit their income is topped up to just above the minimum income.

The study looked a number of costs including rent, food, clothing bills, transport and insurance.

Rent and food were the greatest costs for all groups, except those with children who paid most for childcare.

Julia Unwin, director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: "Of course, everyone has their own views about what items in a family budget are 'essential'.

"But this is the best effort to date to enable ordinary people to discuss and agree what all households should be able to afford."

Commenting on the findings Mervyn Kohler, special adviser for Help the Aged, said: "This research confirms what we have known for some time - that the Basic State Pension does not provide many pensioners with enough money to enjoy a basic standard of living."

He also criticised the "convoluted means-tested system" for further benefits and called for all benefits to be paid automatically.

"More than £5 billion in unclaimed benefits for older people lines the pockets of the Treasury each year, instead of helping pensioners reach towards a basic living standard," Mr Kohler said.

"It's disgraceful and high time benefits were paid to older people automatically."