Millions of staff are skipping a meal a minimum of as soon as per week to avoid wasting money, ballot exhibits

Millions of workers are skipping a meal at least once a week to cut back on spending, grim research shows on Monday.

In the last three months, one in six (17%) full or part time workers skipped a meal – including 2% who missed one everyday and 8% on most days, according to new YouGov polling for the TUC.

Around a quarter (24%) of those surveyed said they’d made large or significant cutbacks on food spending in the last year while a similar proportion (23%) said they were struggling to afford or couldn’t afford their monthly costs.

Some 23% of people polled said they had avoided putting the heating on most days over the last three months, while one in five said they had reduced their use of hot water for showers and baths on most days or every day to save cash.

The TUC said that real wages grew by just 0.3% a year under the Tories. It praised Labour ’s Employment Rights Bill, which will crack down on insecure work, boost sick pay and establish a Fair Work Agency to tackle bad bosses.

TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak said: “Every worker deserves to earn a decent living. But many working households are struggling to make ends meet.

“After 14 years of Tory chaos and stagnation, we urgently need to boost living standards and to get more money into people’s pockets. This is vital for workers and for local economies too. We cannot continue with the same broken status quo.”

::: YouGov polled 2,544 adults online between December 19 and 20.