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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Zoe Wood

Budget 2025: how inflation and the two-child benefit cap have increased poverty

Liam Waghorn stands next to shelves of food
Canterbury food bank’s operations manager, Liam Waghorn: ‘We have to go and find donations rather than expect them.’ Photograph: Teri Pengilley/The Guardian

“I’ve sat and cried many times, feeling like I’ve let my kids down,” is the heartbreaking description one Kent mother gives of the difficulty she has meeting her family’s needs.

With four children still under 13, the family live in a rented flat in the town of Herne Bay on the county’s north coast. She does not come to the door, but her partner passes a handwritten note relaying their meagre existence on benefits as the Guardian joins the local food bank’s morning delivery round.

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