When the prime minister and chancellor speak of the need to make tough decisions in the upcoming budget, for people like us, who are struggling against poverty, it is a frightening prospect. We bear the biggest impact of cuts, delays and underinvestment in the services we rely on the most and we cannot afford for things to get worse before they get better.
That’s why this week, Challenge Poverty Week, we will each be writing an open letter to the prime minister to share our experiences of poverty and ask him to recognise that people who have lived in poverty should be listened to and involved when new policies are created. There are many excellent examples in communities across the country of how this has led to positive and tangible lasting change at a local level, but we need national transformation too.
Keir Starmer has said that he believes that every child, every person, deserves to be respected for the contribution they make.
We ask him now to put this into practice, and invite people with lived experience of poverty to contribute to the development of solutions, because we know, perhaps better than many others, that nothing about us, without us, is for us.
Clair Pope Lewes, East Sussex, Saf Stedall Portsmouth, Glory Omoaka Glasgow, Steve Huxford London, Ashleigh May Halifax, West Yorkshire, Tyra Goodwin Cheshire
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