Politicsuk newsHalloween Halloween 2014

Happy Halloween, Here Are 7 Horrifying Facts About Our Economy

Here Are 7 Horrifying Facts About Our Economy...
Asa Bennett
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George Osborne is well recognised for ability to look scary, and some would say, rather evil.

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But with Halloween upon us, the state of Britain's economy is far more frightening than the man voters tasked with seeing it improve. HuffPostUK rounds up just seven rather scary facts that may just give the Chancellor nightmares.

7 Horrifying Halloween Facts About The UK Economy
More than one in four children live in poverty(01 of07)
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Unicef made this stark assessment recently, warning that the number of children in poverty is undergoing an "unprecedented" rise because of the government's austerity measures.
One million Brits rely on food banks (02 of07)
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The Trussell Trust network of food banks in April revealed a "shocking" rise of 163% on the previous 12 months amid rising living costs, low pay and welfare problems.The charity said rising numbers were turning to food banks because their incomes are "squeezed", despite signs of an economic recovery. (credit:Jeff J Mitchell via Getty Images)
More than 400,000 'zombie' firms are just limping along...(03 of07)
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These "zombie" businesses are cash-starved firms which can't scrape together enough money to invest, but are paying just enough to keep their creditors at bay, leaving them to limp on like one of the "undead". Even more frighteningly, the zombies are eating away at the economic recovery.An estimated 432,082 businesses are zombies, according to insolvency experts Begbies Traynor, who looked for businesses in a "red alert" financial condition. (credit:TPG via Getty Images)
Are we REALLY better off than we were six years ago? (04 of07)
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This chart, showing GDP per capita, which gives a sense of individual wealth, was 5.5% down in the first quarter of 2014 from the same point in 2008.
Your pay won't be back to normal for years(05 of07)
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Inflation is still eating at your pay packet, which means you're getting poorer in real terms, and it will take a while before it not just starts to improve, but returns to pre-recession levels. Some experts suggest your pay packet is still continuing to fall by more than in any prior recovery, and is down 8% since May 2010.
George is really struggling to tackle the deficit...(06 of07)
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George Osborne's hopes of eliminating Britain's deficit by 2018 look to be increasingly hard as the decline in the country's rate of borrowing appears to have stalled. WIth borrowing still soaring, it is proving a tough battle.
And George is far from finished with his cuts (07 of07)
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The Institute for Fiscal Studies issued a sobering reminder that the next government would cause “the same amount of pain as this one" this after David Cameron boasted on Thursday that the coalition "will have made £100bn of savings" during this parliament, with £25bn in further savings planned for the next parliament.IFS director Paul Johnson told the Today programme: "If you do things in a consistent way, whichever way you do it really, we’re about halfway through." (credit:Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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