Martin Lewis: What Do The Latest Inflation Figures Mean? | Good Morning Britain

abroad at six o'clock welcome to the show great to have you back on wednesday it's the wallets we do uh we open up and take a look at

what

's in your wallet oh no that's not

what

we do i don't have a wallet you have a wallet Interestingly, didn't we get a warning this

morning

that cash is being all but wiped out of society? There is a real difficulty with cash because many people under the age of 50 are no longer using cash. I don't have a wallet. I have my phone, I pay on my watch, I have a digital wallet of course, which a lot of people have, but I'm actually one of those who was involved in accessing the cash report several years ago, the problem is that more people don't use cash the more we need to protect cash for those people who have to use cash right?

There are some really big problems that can be as small as blind people. Touch screens are a nightmare for them to get their cash out of ATMs, which makes life much more difficult, but for many seniors and people with dementia who have difficulty remembering PIN numbers, cash is a lifeline, so we have this weird polarized society where cash is disappearing for a lot of people, right? use cash, you know what? The other day I was in a taxi that I had booked and paid for in advance, but of course when I crossed off I thought I wanted to tip the driver, but I couldn't tip him because I never carry since I don't have cash I phoned afterwards, but tipping is an issue and of course people who rely on cash tips homeless buskers many people like that are finding themselves short of cash I was talking to someone who was on the street a couple of weeks ago and was saying what are you doing now and he says it's terrible that no one has money to give and I've been in that position myself when someone asks me who you want to help and I just say I don't really don't have no I have no way to get you money no there's no ATM you can't help so we have this really weird society where of course we want all the benefits and advances of a digital economy and lots of it but we have to protect the cash. at least for the next 20 or 30 years until we can find other solutions that work well so yeah it's an interesting scenario and what else is on your agenda today well look I really wanted to do something about minimum wage The minimum wage went up. 9.7 percent huh in April and we're about to hit the first full pay cycle, which is when people should be feeling it in their pay packages, but the low wage commission says half a million people on minimum wage are still wrong paid, right?

There are eight different ways that it happens, so I have a chart that I'll go over later, just after seven o'clock, to explain to you if you're at or near minimum wage, why you need to do all these checks, and you may actually be underpaid and you may be owed money and this isn't just small businesses doing it in the name and shame that happened in 2021 john

lewis

sheffield united uh body shop we are in the name of minimum wage and the shame of things they had done it a few years before so and you know free cash change the cheapest way to spend abroad you have quest problems on your energy bills contact anything that saves money and i will try to answer those you ask if i can yes ok usually you can and we will have numerous options yes that's true that's true yes try to trick

martin

with a question he can't answer um we will do you want to know my answer when that happen?

What is it? That's a really interesting question. I'm going to come back to you next time I'm in yes exactly what will be very regular here at Good Morning Britain uh our headline news this

morning

is almost 100 charities and campaign groups have written to the leaders of all major politicians. the party demands to know how they intend to help the millions of people struggling with the cost of living crisis, they want nine out of ten low-income households now to be left without Essentials, be it food or heat, due to skyrocketing prices, yes, and today is

inflation

day. i will hear in the next hour that the official

inflation

figures

for march will be released and they are expected to show the rate has dropped a little bit frankly it will be a trivial difference and it won't make any difference to the amount you are paying they are still going up prices for household items and services have still continued to rise, so the predictions will be around 9.8 percent, right? still going up

good

no inflation inflation is going down but inflation is a measure of how prices are going up yes prices are going up prices are going up but maybe not as fast as they were but it certainly won't go down Katie Ricketts our correspondent is the Annabelle's deliciously British Strawberry Farm.

I've never tried strawberries, but I'm sure they're delicious in Mickle's field near Leeds. With the cost of fruit, what are farmers doing to try to keep prices down? The thing is, Martin farmers are tired of being expected to be the saviors in this cost of living crisis because, of course, they are now victims on a massive scale. I wonder why I'm not surrounded by a sea of ​​red. That's because these strawberries will be ready in about four weeks. We have a little glimpse here. This is how they look now, but in about four weeks they will be on the market. and some people hope that this flood of British agricultural products will help bring prices down.

Farmers certainly not because that will

mean

they won't get the demand for their produce and of course they have been paying those huge inflation rates to grow these strawberries say around 20p a kilo and on this Farm that's going to cost a kilo they are paying more to produce them and on this Farm they have two million kilos you can understand why some farmers are considering whether it is a sustainable profession at all in this church in Blackpool they are giving budgeting and cooking lessons for those who struggle to eat, and a lot less eating healthy food has gone up so much now you're talking 40-50 lbs just on a weekly purchase and then you have the cost of cooking it I have tons of soup so at least I have if the worst happens I can have A Tennessee farmers say they just can't cut their costs because theirs are going up even higher so we've seen a massive increase in costs from plants to labor which we see every year with rising wages minimum, packaging, fuel and everything has this massive knock-on effect, I

mean

even raising the minimum wage. you have to put in the supervisors you have to put in the managers everyone needs to see the same inflation Annabelle agrees with 90 organizations today calling on the government to step in charities think this should be in the form of a boost to Universal Credit Universal Credit and Social Security in general has not kept up with the cost of living and has left many people unable to pay for basic essentials like food and bills.

Experts say that a drop in inflation expected today will not immediately ease the cost. of living through a crisis when the inflation number goes down that doesn't mean prices are going down at all it just means the rate at which prices are going up is slowing down for growers and buyers it's hard to see a light at the end of the tunnel

good

i'm united now by animal do annabelle macon jones now we were just talking about what the government can do we are all constantly being told to eat healthy which is obviously a good thing and farmers support british farmers , so, what to do?

You think the government could do to help you and help people enjoy your products more and you need to see what countries like the Netherlands do where they help subsidize food. We all want a healthier nation. We all want people to eat fresh produce but we can only do so much with minimum wage increasing energy costs um you know we need to see what kind of support the government can give us so we can produce food at an affordable price for everyone to eat fresh produce ok thanks you and what Annabelle was telling me yesterday is also that lag we were talking about there in the VT you saw even if the inflation rate falls it will take a long time for Farmers to recoup last year's cost because, of course they are backing off so it's not an easy fix whatever happens today it's ok Katie thank you very much actually that's our top story this morning for the whole show of course Martin is answering your questions money questions so get in touch facebook twitter or email will try to answer as many as we can and that employer just mentioned the increase in minimum wage yes which is of course a double edged sword huh?

Isn't it because for companies are struggling when the minimum wage increases? it can feed inflation but the reason the minimum wage has gone up by 9.7 is to counter inflation and that is the whole cycle of inflation which is the difficulty the bank of england and the government have to deal with is that you want to keep everyone up to date with inflation. but by doing that you risk keeping inflation higher in your own right, not an easy one to figure out.