ALMOST three-quarters of people across the Highlands and Islands have admitted the cost-of-living crisis is affecting their mental health with people forced to skip meals and live in their vehicles, an MSP’s survey has shown.
SNP MSP Emma Roddick sent out a consultation in April as she sought to find out first-hand just how difficult people in her constituency were finding the current financial climate.
She collated the devastating results - from over 300 responses - this week and found people were going to worrying lengths in order to keep their heads above water.
The survey revealed 93% of residents feel extremely worried about the cost-of-living crisis while 98% feel extremely worried about the increased cost of their bills.
A total of 74% said the situation was affecting their mental health and 82% said they had reached out for help or were considering doing so.
People shared that to cope with the crisis they were skipping meals, eating less, working more hours, living in their vehicles and borrowing cash.
Roddick said the results were “harrowing” and said the UK Government had a "moral duty" to step in and help people with their bills.
“I'm deeply concerned by the unrelenting stress of trying to make ends meet that constituents reflected in the survey results and comments,” said Roddick.
“The lengths that people have been forced to go to in order to cope with the rising costs of living are harrowing and no one should ever be put in the positions they have been.
"Another worrying thing to come out of the survey for me was people who said they were managing at the moment but were still extremely worried about their energy bills, so there's clearly concern people who are okay now might still be pushed into poverty.
"The UK Government morally has to do something to tackle high energy bills. We know companies are profiting from people being in poverty.
"And if the UK Government isn't going to do that, they should devolve the powers so we can do something about it."
Roddick added the motivation behind the survey was to reach out to people who would not normally speak up to their MSP which led her to discover many of her constituents were "suffering in silence".
Earlier this week inflation surged to a 40-year high, as the SNP blasted the Tories for paying more attention to in-fighting in their leadership race than tackling an ever-worsening economic crisis.
Official data showed that Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation rose to 9.4% in June, up from 9.1% in May and remaining at the highest level since February 1982.
June’s inflation rate was higher than the 9.3% expected by most economists.
Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) also revealed that the cost of motor fuels jumped by 42.3% in the 12 months to June – the biggest leap since records began.
Average petrol prices stood at 184p a litre last month, up 18.1p since May, while diesel raced 12.7p higher to 192.4p a litre, which was also a record.
