THE AVERAGE married couple is now paying £1,550 a year more in living costs than in 2002, according to new figures.

Huge rises in mortgage payments, council tax, national insurance and utility bills are to blame for the increase, according to a study by accountancy firm Numerica, which has its southern regional HQ in Millbrook, Southampton.

Once these costs are taken into account, the effective inflation rate has been running at 3.75 per cent a year for the past two years, the study claimed.

Numerica, which employs 130 people in the region and has 3,000 clients, based its study on a married couple earning £40,000 a year between them, with a £120,000 mortgage, £700 council tax bill and £1,500 of utility bills.

From April 2002 to this month, the couple faced increased mortgage payments to £900 a year, extra council tax of £126, extra national insurance of £305 and a £225 increase in utility bills, it claimed.

Numerica chief economist Maurice Fitzpatrick said: "This index demonstrates that the effective cost of living increase for millions of families is very significantly above the government's own preferred headline inflation figure."

Meanwhile, in a separate study, accountants Smith & Williamson, which has its regional base at Town Quay, Southampton, calculated that the average higher rate tax payer was paying as much as 50p in every pound he earns in taxes.

The firm also calculated the tax burden for someone earning £25,000 and £50,000 a year in 1997 compared with today.

The latter would have paid 36p in the pound in 1997, rising by a third to 48p now, while the former would have seen his bill rise from 33p in the pound to 38p, the study said.

Francesca Lagerberg, of Smith & Williamson, said: "It is higher-rate taxpayers who have seen the greatest rise in their tax bills.

"The rise in National Insurance, Stamp Duty Land Tax and Council Tax have proved particularly painful, and these, plus all the other tax costs, far outweighsany benefits received through Child Tax Credit and Child Benefit."