A COUPLE with two children now needs to earn £36,800 to achieve an acceptable standard of living, according to research by the York-based Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Foundation chief executive Julia Unwin said families hit by soaring transport and child-care costs, and also cuts in tax credits, were facing a “monumental” task in trying to earn enough to get by.

Since 2008, foundation researchers have been asking focus groups of ordinary people how much money they need for a socially acceptable standard of living, or “Minimum Income Standard”.

It said each parent in a family of four now needed to earn £18,400 a year, single people needed £16,400 and a lone parent with one child needed £23,900, while pensioner couples needed £231 a week excluding rent.

The report said a quarter of the UK population now lived below the standard, three million more than in 2008.

It said households found public transport was now less adequate in meeting their needs, and therefore families with children now defined a car as “essential”, adding: “This significantly raises the cost of a minimum living standard. This increase has been partially offset by a reduction in budgets for recreational activities.”

It said groups agreed in 2010 that all working-age households needed a computer in the home and connection to the internet.

But this year parents had spoken of the increasingly prevalent expectation that all school-aged children would have access to a computer at home and said that where there was more than one school-aged child in the household, a second computer would be necessary.

Ms Unwin said that parents facing low wages and pressure on their working time had little prospect of finding the extra money they needed to meet growing household expenses.

“This year’s research shows that a dangerous cocktail of service cuts and stagnating incomes are being keenly felt by parents,” she said.

“Many working people face the risk of sliding into poverty. It illustrates how anti-poverty measures are needed to address not just people’s incomes but also the costs that they face.”

Oxfam’s director of UK poverty, Chris Johnes, said working families were being hit hardest by a “perfect storm” of soaring living costs and cuts to services and crucial support, such as working tax credits.

The report claims that, for a reasonable standard of living:

• Parents in a family of four need £36,800, or £18,400 each

• A single person needs £16,400

• A pensioner couple needs £231 per week, excluding rent

• A single parent with one child needs £276 per week, excluding rent.