It’s a bright summer’s day in Yorkshire, but Bev Rhodes is watching the sun from a corner of her dark bedroom.
The 58-year-old grandmother is often trapped in bed by physical and mental health conditions which affect her movement. Like so many people, she and husband William, also 58, are struggling to buy food and fuel.
“We just can’t manage,” she says, as her eyes fill with tears. “It’s impossible. I get PIP and some other benefits but by the time we’ve paid the bills there is nothing left.”
This is what the cost-of-living crisis means in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.
“I’m sorry for crying, but I didn’t eat at all yesterday,” Bev says.
“There’s only milk and three pieces of cheese in the fridge – you can check. There’s nothing in the freezer.
“I’m so sick of toast. I live on it. One of my carers brought some curry they had cooked themselves for us last week – we had half between us and saved the rest. For two weeks of every month I don’t have a penny to my name.”
She smiles at a young woman standing in the doorway with four carrier bags. “If it wasn’t for Tanisha, we couldn’t eat,” she says.
Tanisha Bramwell is an inspirational local campaigner. Her organisation, Bramwell CIC, and its volunteers help anyone that needs it – providing thousands of food parcels, topping up fuel cards and meters, and, just as importantly, offering moral support.
It’s not just adults calling for help.
“I’ve started to get children contacting us,” Tanisha says.
“Kids of 15 or 16 saying, ‘can you help my mum?’.’’
This week figures revealed almost a third of children in Yorkshire and Humber are living in poverty, including more children than ever from working households.
Tanisha and her team are responding to this growing need every day, collecting donations from supermarkets and local businesses. Set up in 2020 to support people during the pandemic, they are now helping 400 people a week.
They fundraise directly via social media – with 100k followers on TikTok and 44,000 on Facebook.
“We get people from across the world, Australia, America, seeing our social media and sending money,” Tanisha says.
“They can’t believe this is happening in England.”
The 27-year-old grew up on a nearby council estate.
“People have a vision of who needs help, but it could be anyone,” she says, packing the next lot of bags at the food bank.
“You might own a car, a home, be in work, not in work… there’s a refusal to acknowledge what’s happening from some people – including a lot of Tory MPs – as then you have to take action.”
Her phone pings constantly with messages from mums who have no food in the cupboards and no money coming in. “I get messages 24/7” she says. “People in crisis – suicidal, feeling hopeless, people saying they’ve not eaten for days.
“So many people were just managing, but rising prices mean they can’t last from payday to payday. It’s not their fault.
“People need to hear that. It’s not their fault they can’t manage on a benefits income that hasn’t risen in line with inflation or that they’re working 40 hours a week but still don’t have enough. People are carrying guilt and shame but the system is broken.”
Tanisha tells us about a single mum with four children, in temporary accommodation after fleeing domestic violence, who had only eaten twice in three days.
Another mum works a 40-hour week but can’t cover the bills.
There’s an elderly man sitting in a cold, dark house with an empty fridge, running a lead to a neighbour’s house to charge his phone. And an isolated 18-year-old boy, suffering mental health problems with no family and penniless, who was sanctioned after missing a Universal Credit appointment.
Over at Bev’s house, the encounter with Tanisha is clearly a high point in the day – “she’s an angel” she says quietly.
As we leave, Tanisha voices her fears. “People start to feel like things are OK, because the weather is warmer, fuel bills a bit lower,” she says.
“But winter will come. Last year people used up whatever savings or goodwill they had to borrow off family and friends. I’m petrified.”
Tanisha calls herself a community activist, and often ends social media posts with the hashtag #ToriesOut.
“The Conservative government has forced more families into poverty than ever before,” she posted this week.
“They have forced children to lay hungry at night. They have forced our pensioners to sit cold and defenceless.”
Asked what motivates her, she says very simply that it’s for the next generation of her family, who she wants to grow up in a different Britain.
“My nephew is my muse,” she says. “He’s eight years old, he inspires me. You want things to be better for his generation.”
Additional reporting: Claire Donnelly
