The mainstream media has been busy hyping Britain’s new government as something different from its predecessor – a government that “works for all,” as Prime Minister Theresa May is eager to have us believe. But the Autumn Budget Statement, released last month, has revealed that it’s business as usual for the Tories as austerity continues and resistance brews in a Britain beleaguered by uncertainty.

Last month, Philip Hammond revealed his first Budget since taking tenure as Britain’s new chancellor. With the Brexit financial blackhole deepening and austerity policies growing harsher, the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement cemented concerns that government finances will continue to hit the UK's poorest the hardest.

In the wake of the Autumn Statement – and the government’s failure to reign in austerity policies that were originally intended to conclude in a single five-year parliament – the cumulative impacts from ripping into the welfare state are becoming clear to Britain's low-income families. It is now forecast that low income, “just managing families" in work will be left £2,500 worse off by 2020 – a result of combined welfare cutting policies that include a freeze to benefits rates, cuts to Universal Credit that came into effect in April 2016, and a projected rise in the cost of living.

Another disquieting feature of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement was the announcement that insurance premiums are set to rise. Faced with higher insurance, those working on tight budgets will be the first to feel the pinch.

Already in Britain, consumers have been paying the price of a Brexit-fueled inflation, with everyday items rising as a result of the weakening pound. When the Autumn Statement was announced, the Office for Budget Responsibility published the forecast that consumers would continue to be squeezed by rising export cost due to the falling Pound sparked by Brexit.

Several of the UK’s biggest retailers, including Mothercare and Sainsbury’s, warned there will likely be a 5 percent increase in the price of groceries and children’s clothing due to the Referendum result. Economists are predicting that inflation could rise by 3 percent next year as the pound’s Brexit devaluation feeds through to the cost of living.

For hard-up families, a rise in the increase of essential, everyday items could be devastating. Ben Macpherson, a Scottish National Party (SNP) MP for Edinburgh Northern and Leith, voiced concerns over Hammond’s Autumn Statement, warning how the people of Scotland are likely to be affected: “The Chancellor has just proved that this UK government simply does not care for working families across Edinburgh – with the full impact of Brexit yet to come.”

“We are already seeing the impact of leaving the EU hitting consumers, with OBR figures showing that the rising cost of imports die to a fall in the value of Sterling will cause prices of products to rise in our supermarkets and shops – as industry leaders have warned in recent weeks. Insurance premiums are also on the rise – yet another UK government policy that will hit the poorest hardest,” Macpherson warned.

Anger on the rise

As Britain’s poorest continue to bear the brunt of the Conservative government’s failure to protect those on low income, an air of discontent is blowing across the British Isles. On the day the Autumn Statement was announced, anti-austerity campaigners in Britain took to the streets to protest against the relentless austerity cuts.

In Dundee, Scotland, protestors gathered outside a shopping center in response to Hammond’s first Autumn Statement. The demonstrators, organized by the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP), advocated a radical change in the minimal wage, calling for its increase to £10 per hour to help the country’s poorest. Tens of thousands of protestors gathered, waving banners and encouraging passers-by to sign a “roll of shame” petition to the large employers who take advantage of workers through zero hours contracts.

It wasn’t just the citizens of Dundee who were eager to voice their outrage over an Autumn Statement that further twists the knife into Britain’s “just managing” families. In Birmingham, where protestors also arranged a protest on the day the Autumn Statement was announced, campaigners met to protest against the ongoing cuts the city has been forced to live with – including huge cuts in Adult Social Care, cuts to libraries in the region and cuts to children’s services.

On its website, Birmingham Against The Cuts claims the reduction in the benefit cap that the Conservative government announced this fall will hit some 116,000 families, which have between one and four children each. In the broader West Midlands region, the number of households affected by the welfare cut will increase from approximately 1,000 to around 12,000.

Further south, in the city of Bristol, protestors also took to the streets coinciding with the release of the Autumn Statement. Organized by the Bristol People’s Assembly, the demonstration was inspired by Ken Loach’s 2016 film "I, Daniel Blake," an emphatic drama centered on a disabled man who is strangled by the bureaucracy of the UK’s benefits system. The protestors gathered outside a job center in Bristol, in similar style to the Loach film, and voiced anger that the Chancellor has done little to address the wellbeing of people struggling under austerity in Britain. They also spoke of ongoing funding cuts that are crippling the NHS and social care.

Steve, a self-employed electrician in Northwest England, told Occupy.com he was disappointed that Hammond’s Autumn Statement put in place so little that would help households struggling to make ends meet. “Isn’t the purpose of austerity to restore profitability?” he asked. “But just whose profitability are we supposed to be restoring? Not the 'just managing' families, that’s for sure.”

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