Candice is diabetic so skipping meals carries a health risk. A few weeks ago, as the final pennies of her universal credit drained out of her bank account, Candice gave the last of her food to her eight-year-old daughter and tried to make it to dinner without eating. By mid-afternoon, the 32-year-old single mother from south London was in trouble.
“I had a headache and I felt dizzy and light-headed,” she said. “My eyes started rolling to the back of my head. I felt like I was going to pass out. My daughter had never seen me like that and she was worried, so we walked to Croydon University Hospital. At A&E they gave me food and water and said I was dehydrated and that my medication requires three meals a day. I already knew that, but since I lost my job as an elderly-care support worker during Covid and with prices shooting up, I can’t afford it.”
That same week in west London, another drama caused by the cost of living crisis was playing out. Jennifer Jones, a disabled single mother of seven, also on benefits, was shopping on the high street on her electric-powered mobility scooter when she ran out of charge. “I got into debt of £1,600 with the electricity company that I cannot afford, so I have been cutting costs by only charging my mobility scooter for four hours instead of through the night,” she said.
“I was going along when the energy gauge started flashing red and then it died. I was stuck in the middle of the high street miles from home. I had to stop a passer-by and ask them to push me to a fast-food restaurant where I asked to charge it. They said, ‘we don’t allow that sort of thing’ and I started to cry so they said okay. I felt embarrassed and stressed. It’s the second time this has happened to me.”
These are just two of the myriad ways in which the cost of living crisis nips insidiously at the heels of the poor and vulnerable — and then suddenly overwhelms them.
We are facing a national emergency. With food prices and energy bills rising at the highest rate in over 40 years, people everywhere are tightening their belts, but for those on the breadline there is no more slack. Over 14.5 million people live in poverty in the UK, including 4.3 million children, nearly one in three, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
For many it means impossible choices — like deciding between going hungry or sitting in the cold and dark. And feelings of dread as to what lies ahead, knowing this winter is going to be harder than ever.
We have partnered with Comic Relief who have kicked off our joint initiative with a £1 million pledge that Comic Relief will give out in grants to charities and organisations helping the most disadvantaged people in London and across the country.
The first £1 million will go out in urgent grants allocated before Christmas, but we are appealing to corporates, charitable foundations, philanthropists and readers to donate generously so we can double this sum and make additional grant allocations in the new year.
Samir Patel, CEO of Comic Relief, said: “This winter is going to be frighteningly tough for people up and down the country as the cost of living crisis pushes millions to breaking point. Millions face going hungry and without basic necessities and pressure is mounting from all angles.
As this national emergency intensifies, people need our help now. We are hugely grateful for this opportunity with the Evening Standard and Independent to launch a cost of living appeal and raise urgent funds this winter. From supporting foodbanks to providing warm clothing and energy top up cards, this campaign will deliver a lifeline and ease the pressure for people facing the toughest times of their lives.”
Over the past couple months, our team of writers have been interviewing people around the country struggling with the cost of living crisis. We thought we knew how rising prices were affecting people, but what we have come across is deeply harrowing. They include cases of:
A mother putting her baby to sleep in an open drawer because she cannot afford a cot.
Toddlers wearing sodden, soiled nappies all day because their parents ration supplies.
Families sitting in the dark and cold at night, swathed in coats and blankets and too afraid to turn on the lights or heating for fear of unaffordable bills.
Single mothers with no recourse to public funds feeding their children on £10 a day and frequently running out of food.
People with dental problems unable to get NHS treatment or afford private care and so living with excruciating tooth ache.
Over the coming weeks, we will report on organisations helping to ease the pressure on people on the breadline. One group I visited was Guiding Hands in Croydon — yet even as I travelled there, the tentacles of the cost of living crisis were evident.
At the train station, I witnessed staff admonish three teenage boys for attempted fare-dodging. It turned out the boys were on their way to school but had no money for transport. The station staff agreed to let them travel free, but told them that instead of jumping turnstiles, they needed to tell staff who would be understanding. A member of staff said: “We see this happening a lot now. The cost of living crisis is forcing poor kids to break the law just to get to school. It’s terrible. We have no official policy but at this station we see if their need is genuine and, if so, let them travel free.”
At the Guiding Hands community centre, comprising two small rooms, we met a resilient and supportive group of single mothers, including Candice, who attend their Monday coffee mornings, as well as their Foodie Friday social food bank supplied by The Felix Project. “This place is a Godsend,” said Candice. “It gets me a food top up once a week and I can talk to other mothers and feel I am not in this alone.”
She spoke to Cece, 32, a single mother of three children aged five, two and two months, who is trying to get by on universal credit of £687 a month after rent. Cece said: “I come from a proud family who always worked. My dad was in IT, mum was a social worker and I worked in victim support for the Home Office earning £27,000 a year until I was made redundant. Now I think about bills all the time, but this place is a life-saver. Here I get a £35 hamper of food and baby provisions for a fiver and it gets me through the week.”
Another single mother, Ann, a former carer with four children, said: “Gone are the days when I could look forward to three meals a day. One if I’m lucky and sometimes it’s just crackers or toast. I didn’t eat at all yesterday. I get universal credit and after paying rent, I have £267 a month left for food, utilities, transport, everything.
“You can’t believe how fast my prepaid energy smart meter goes down. I put money in and before I look round, I have to top up. I tell the kids, “socks, dressing gowns, blankets” because heating is crazy. I don’t know how we will cope when it gets really cold. I will probably come here to keep warm.”
Indeed Guiding Hands has just applied for £7,000 from the National Grid Community Matters Fund to become an official “warm space”. More than two dozen councils are launching warm space funds this winter — including Islington, Hounslow and Richmond in London, and county councils in Essex, Wolverhampton, Somerset, Derbyshire and North Devon.
In Wolverhampton —where nearly a quarter of households are in fuel poverty compared to 13 per cent nationally — they are opening 38 warm spaces. Ian Brookfield, leader of Wolverhampton county council, said: “It feels like we are going back to Dickensian times”.
Guiding Hands CEO and founder Tracey Davis said demand for their service has risen sharply. “We regularly help about 50 mothers a week with our coffee mornings and Foodie Fridays but we now get an additional 45 walk-ins every month. They knock on our door and say: ‘Can we get a food parcel? We have no money and no food.’ Often they have googled ‘food bank’ in desperation and travelled to us from far.”
Tracey set up Guiding Hands 11 years ago to help single mothers aged 16 to 25 with advice about everything from cooking to bathing a baby, but she has since expanded it to support vulnerable mums of any age with school-aged children. She said: “As a single mum myself, I know the struggles.”
Their annual budget of only £89,000 means they have had to cut popular projects like boxercise and free food parcel deliveries to vulnerable mums who can’t easily travel, but a grant from our On the Breadline Appeal would allow Tracey to re-instate these and expand their offering.
“I have created a place where we accept anyone in need,” she said. “Covid was tough but the cost of living crisis is on another level. It’s the worst I’ve ever seen it.”
What your money buys
£10 could help feed a family of three for a week
£20 could buy a winter kit containing a blanket, hat, scarf and gloves
£50 could buy a utility top-up voucher for a vulnerable family
£75 could help provide a slow cooker, recipes and cooking sessions for a family
£100 could provide an emergency shopping voucher for a family struggling with cost of living rises
In numbers: true scale of our of crisis
14.5m people living in poverty in the UK, including 4.3m children
8m households facing fuel poverty
31% of children living in poverty
14.5% rise in supermarket food prices in the past year, the highest increase since 1980
83% rise in typical household energy bills this winter
16% rise in property rental facing new tenants in London over past year
24% rise in people sleeping rough in London in the past year
35% rise in people sleeping rough for the first time since last year
300% rise in tenant evictions in London since second quarter of 2021
Sources: Government departments; Joseph Rowntree Foundation; Resolution Foundation thinktank; Rightmove
Evening Standard Christmas appeal in a nutshell
What is happening? We have partnered with Comic Relief to launch On the Breadline, our cost-of-living Christmas Appeal. Comic Relief have pledged £1 million to kick off our fund.
Where will the money go? To organisations in London and across the UK working to help people on the breadline cope with the cost of living.
