Britain | Get with the program

How government IT systems affect the cost-of-living crisis in Britain

Old computer systems make it difficult to raise benefits, but not impossible

Civil servants sort and file documents in to wooden cabinets in the Archives Division at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in Whitehall, London during World War II in February 1941. (Photo by Reuben Saidman/Popperfoto via Getty Images)

Up and up it goes. Consumer-price inflation in Britain hit 9% in April, its highest rate since 1982. It will rise further. On May 16th Andrew Bailey, the governor of the Bank of England, said that he could not prevent inflation from hitting double digits later this year, when a cap on household energy bills will jump again. The cost-of-living squeeze is putting pressure not just on households, but also on the government to act. Talk swirls of windfall taxes on energy firms and of income-tax cuts.

This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Get with the program”

The coming food catastrophe

From the May 21st 2022 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from Britain

Stock price information displayed on a board at the London Stock Exchange.

Britain’s brokers are diversifying and becoming less British

London’s depleted stockmarket is forcing them to change

Sculpture by Charles Jencks of DNA double helix Cambridge University.

What a buzzy startup reveals about Britain’s biotech sector

Lots of clever scientists, not enough business nous


Illustration of Kier Starmer facing away next to the stripes of the Union Jack and the stars of the EU flag

Britain’s government lacks a clear Europe policy

It should be more ambitious over getting closer to the EU


The Rachel Reeves theory of growth

The chancellor says it’s her number-one priority. We ask her what that means for Britain