A single mum is facing ‘impossible decisions’ due to the massive increase in the cost of living affecting households across the country.
Gemma Widdowfield, 36, says that her monthly gas and electric bills have doubled recently, leaving her ‘choosing between flushing the toilet or putting the heating on, boiling the kettle for a cup of tea or microwaving some lunch’.
It comes at the same time as her Universal Credit has been reduced by £20 a week, after the coronavirus uplift was removed 100 days ago in October.
Although Gemma has a ‘good job’ working as senior investigations officer at a local council, she is still struggling on a single income supporting both herself and her young daughter Poppy.
Official figures released today show that inflation has soared to its highest level in 30 years, reaching 5.4% last month – the highest rate since March 1992.
Describing how she tries to make savings, Gemma, who left an 11 year career in the police after her daughter was born, said: ‘I work from home, usually at the top of the house where it’s a little warmer. I wear a thermal hat and lots of layers as I can’t warrant turning the heating on just for myself.
‘I keep the heating off during the day so that I can afford to put it on for a bit when my three-year-old daughter gets home from nursery. I can’t bear the thought of her being cold at home.’
Wages across the country have not kept pace with the increased price of everyday items, with average wage growth including bonuses rising by 4.2% in the three months to November.
Save the Children campaigner Gemma, who lives near Luton in Bedfordshire, said she felt fortunate to receive some financial help through Universal Credit, which helped her pay for childcare and supported her return to work after maternity leave.
But she said she is ‘pleading’ with the government to reinstate the £20 uplift, which was introduced to help people weather the pandemic.
‘Along with millions of people across the country, my Universal Credit payments were cut by £20 per week last October – the equivalent of over £1,000 a year,’ she said.
‘This slash to incomes came at the worst possible time, just as the furlough scheme came to an end for millions of people and the cost of living started to increase dramatically.
‘That £20 a week was a lifeline that paid for my daughter’s packed lunches and her food for the week – things like bread, ham and cheese and healthy snacks for her lunchbox.
‘But now I’m forced to try and find that money elsewhere, either by using credit cards or by making tough sacrifices and going without certain things myself.’
Gemma, who gave evidence to Commons Work and Pensions Committee last year about the effect of the cut, added: ‘I want the government to consider what it must feel like to have to keep the heating turned off on the coldest days of the year, or to limit the number of times you flush the toilet in order to save water. This is the real impact of the double whammy of rising living costs and a cut to benefits.’
As well as the reduction in benefits, Gemma pointed out that the £140 a year Warm Home discount which gives help with electricity bills for those on low incomes ‘hasn’t risen since 2014, despite the cost of living and utility bills rising every year’.
Earlier this week, analysis showed the proportion of those in England under ‘fuel stress’ is expected to leap from 9% to 27% – equal to 6.3 million households – when a cap on energy bills is increased.
Ofgem is due to announce the new annual cap level next month, with predictions it could rise by more than 50% to £2,000 a year.
Last month, the government said the amount people can earn before their benefits are reduced has increased by £500 a year.
They added that the taper rate (the amount benefits are reduced by as someone on Universal Credit earns more) has dropped from 63% to 53%.
Taken to together, they said this represents ‘an effective tax cut worth £2.2 billion for the lowest earners’ and said almost two million of the lowest paid working families will be better off each year by an average of £1,000.
But Dan Paskins, Director of UK Impact at Save the Children, said: ‘Inflation, increases in energy prices, and fuel shortages are all taking a toll on family finances.
‘Parents we work with had already seen their household budgets stretched to the limit by the pandemic. Now, as we seek to recover and move on from the pandemic, families face impossible choices like whether to heat their home or buy clothes for their children.
‘The scale of the current cost of living increases is putting huge pressure on already stretched budgets, and parents have told us they are skipping meals and relying on food banks to feed their children.
‘The pace in which the cost of living is rising is extremely alarming and will only push more children into poverty if the Government do not intervene.
‘The pandemic has made it clear that we need a strong social security system to support families when things get tough. The previous boost to Universal Credit was a lifeline for families up and down the country. A targeted increase to Universal Credit will enable parents to provide for their family, and ensure that their children are warm, fed, and looked after.’
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