Exit From EU Would Hit Poor U.K. Families Hard

With the U.K. set to vote on European Union membership in less than a month, economists, politicians and pundits are endlessly debating how an EU exit would affect the country’s economy. However, for many families, the types of figures being thrown about -- which can run to the billions of pounds -- may seem abstract and remote from their everyday lives. A report released Thursday changes all of that.

In a study for the independent National Institute of Economic and Social Research, Angus Armstrong, Katerina Lisenkova and Simon Lloyd crunched the numbers to see how Brexit would affect the welfare payments upon which the poorest British households rely. The results were shocking, suggesting that many working families would be left noticeably worse off.