The cost of austerity: measurable decline in life expectancy in the UK

Given the state of human and social services in both the UK and the US, it should be no surprise that among peer "first world" nations, both the US and the UK have the worst life expectancies when it comes to low income households.

The Guardian reports ("Austerity blamed for life expectancy stalling for first time in century") that an analysis of the impact of cuts to social and health programs in UK over the past ten years has found a measurable reduction in life expectancy, although it reflects mortality increases amongst the poor, who have borne the brunt of cuts to social care, health care, housing, and social services.

Reconfiguration of the welfare benefit program has been a disaster too ("The misery, despair and pain of universal credit," Guardian), leading to a number of deaths as people get cut off services.

And this is more "a feature not a bug" in the way the services have been set up to fail. The government argues instead that deaths from flu and other circumstances led to the decline.

Basically the decline in life expectancy tracks with the increase in poverty.