The cost of living crisis is well and truly upon us as the new tax year begins and increases in bills set to kick in this month. For some, the increase in rent, bills and supermarket shops will mean less of life's pleasures. But for some, who already rely on food banks for meals and government support, the increases are terrifying.
Perry’s Pantry Foodbank in Didsbury helps more than 50 families across south Manchester, including one woman, Claire (not her real name), who is struggling to cope with debt, lack of income, and mental health issues.
Read more: 'I volunteer at a foodbank in Didsbury- and I think I might need it one day too'
Claire first started receiving food bank parcels last summer after she was referred to Perry’s Pantry following a decline in her mental health. Despite working two jobs and having recently completed her PHD, Claire still found herself without funds for food.
“I started a PHD years ago, then I ended up in hospital, I was sectioned two times in quite a small space of time, and I then had to go back to university part time and I’ve had other interruptions in the middle of it. It’s been very difficult to carry it on alongside work and my mental health.
“I had my funding stopped for that, so I was effectively having to work, but without any income and I’m self employed, having been taken on by a charity as self employed - but it’s effectively a zero hours contract.
“They don’t pay me on time, I have to chase my pay every month, and it’s not very stable work. Only the pay sounds OK, I’ve basically been living off £600 a month for the last year.”
Claire’s rent in Didsbury was £725 per month, which she splits with an ex-partner who she continues to live with as she cannot afford to move out, however she was recently told that this would be increasing to £850 per month.
She feels trapped in her property as she currently receives support from her local mental health services and moving could mean losing these vital services if she relocates to a different area.
“It’s a nightmare, I don’t know what to do really, I just can’t afford to live, I really don’t know what I’m going to do and I’m already in so much debt just to pay the cost of living. I can’t afford to live on my own, I can barely afford to share, we pay half the rent and bills each.
“What worries me most is the uncertainty about it, thinking at the drop of a hat everything could go wrong and I’m one paycheck away from literally not having anywhere to live.
“I feel like I’m in a survival game. I’ve run out of all of my weapons, my resources and my toolbox is empty and I’m being shot at. I’m in a survival game and there’s no way out.”
Meanwhile, Claire has also received a £600 water bill for the last four months. She describes how her property has leaking taps and, despite repeatedly reporting this to her landlord, they have not been repaired.
Claire says the property she rents is in need of more repairs, with damp walls that she believes have given her a chronic cough. She does not receive any Universal Credit or other government support, because the hours she works are above the threshold for funding.
“I really really struggle to function on a basic level with all of this worry, the rent going up, the electricity bills going up, this massive water bill of £600, and I don’t get any discount on my council tax because I work enough hours to not quite qualify for the support," she said.
“I always fall into the middle of the things where I don’t qualify for benefits because I’m working, but I end up caught in this situation. I remember someone telling me that I would do way better off, just never working and I could claim what I could, but even then that’s not enough for people now either.”
Without the food parcels she receives from Perry's Pantry, Claire does not think she would be able to afford to eat. She fears that her landlord might see that she receives parcels and evict her.
“I’ve set up a weekly plan [with Perry’s Pantry] where I pay £3.50 a week and they deliver it. Had I not had not that, well, it got to a point where I went to Aldi and my card was declined because I didn’t have enough to pay for what I’d put on the counter, so I had to walk back past everyone and put all of the food back on the shelves.
“It was such a low point, that I think if I didn’t have the weekly food parcels from them, I just wouldn’t have had anything to eat. When I get my food bank delivery here, I’m worried my landlord will see it and evict me because I can’t afford to live. It’s just relentless, there’s no quality of life here.
“That’s my worry, that it’s going to get worse. This world, I’ve just thought that I have no quality of life with it, absolutely none.”
Peter, a resident of Fallowfield who asked only to be referred to by his first name, cannot work due to medical issues and also receives food parcels from Perry’s Pantry. He says that the Pantry is unlike any other service out there.
“I can’t work because of medical reasons," he said. "I was given their name and I made arrangements and all that sort of thing.
“They were very helpful and they explained how it works. I have the food delivered. I pay some money towards it and it’s very prompt, all of the volunteers who work there are brilliant.
“I’ve had to change what I eat and how I eat. What I need, I can’t afford, it’s too expensive. The Pantry helps me out to a certain extent with the foods, but it doesn’t cover everything because they don’t have the response from the public.
"There’s certain food, I can’t get it all the time, but now and again I get a chicken or meat. I can only get fresh meat once a month. They’ve never let me down anyway, they always text me to say it’s on its way or if there’s a problem. To me [Perry’s Pantry] is the best one going.”
For Peter, the changes in the welfare system, specifically the change to Universal Credit, were destabilising.
“I’m on Universal Credit because I can’t work, it's ridiculous," he said. "They pay you a pence and expect you to manage on it - you can’t. As for help, you need to be in touch with these and those people. This country, it’s going down the drain.
“When they changed the system, the welfare system. It just went mad. They messed up payments, I had to sort all my bills out. It didn’t help, my mum passed away and that made it worse.
“It was a case of trying to live on what they were giving me. But the Pantry, they’ve been brilliant, they’ll let me have stuff when I’ve been short of money.
“To me, they don’t let you down and I have a good chat with the girls who come delivering. At the end of the day they’re at the other end of a telephone, so if I can’t speak to somebody, I’ll just leave a text and they’ll get in touch.
“No one else is doing anything else like compared with the Pantry. They can do with all the help they can get. They’re doing a great job and I’ve not come across anyone else who’s done the same sort of thing.”
Perry’s Pantry is an independent charity and receives no funding, so is supported entirely by donations and the kindness of the people of south Manchester.
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News last week, Tricia Reilly-Hurst, a trustee of Perry’s Pantry Foodbank, said: “It’s only going to get worse from April, it costs us between £500 and £700 a week now to shop because everything has increased in price and you know, it’s not just 10 pence. There’s been a massive increase.
“All our food is donated by the generosity of Didsbury, we help people in Burnage, we help a blind guy in Gorton, we help somebody in Reddish so we’re not just stuck to Didsbury, it depends where the referrals are coming from.
“We stand alone, so we get no help from the Trussell Trust or any other big organisation, we do just truly depend on people’s generosity and the community and schools. Schools have been great, you know St. Catherine’s and Beaver Road, they’ve really helped us.
“If not for our unsung heroes, our lovely volunteers, we wouldn’t be here, we wouldn’t be running and I can’t even express that enough.”
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