A Merseyside town has been rated in the same category of need as affluent Windsor, but local families say they're relying on food banks and "watching TV in the dark".
Bootle has been deemed comparable to upmarket areas including Cambridge and the City of London in the support it receives from the government's levelling up fund.
But residents visit low budget shops and are forced to switch off all their appliances to save cash.
They also rely on others to help them with the cost of food and rising energy bills.
The Liverpool Echo reported on the plight of Amanda Young, one of the area's residents.
The 47-year-old said: “I just watch the tele in my room with all of the lights off,”
She does this to help save on electricity use in addition to going to bed early.
The pantry, she visits in the town, run by the Independence Initiative, also helps her money go further.
She said: “I've never known it like this. I've never known it to be more desperate for people. I grew up in the 1980s - we're supposed to be more advanced now.”
Ashley, a mum of seven, who did not want to give her surname, is also doing her shop at the Indy Pantry.
Some weeks she can’t afford to use the service, where members pay between £3.50 and £5 to get a collection of items totalling roughly over £20.
She said: “Sometimes I have to go to a food bank. A lot of people are asking for help. You can tell [the cost of living] is hitting people - those you wouldn't even think need help.
“But everyone is sticking together. Especially around here [in Bootle]. Everyone helps one another.”
Lisa Robinson, 49, another member of the pantry is in full-time employment as is her husband.
But spiralling prices for food means the items are sometimes more essential than supplementary to her own shopping.
She added: “Some weeks you think ‘I can't wait for Thursday’ when the pantry is open.”
But looking ahead to the winter and further rises in the price of food and fuel, she is “terrified and panicked" adding: “We just don't know what's going to happen.”
The Linacre ward of Bootle, where the Independence Initiative is based, is in the top 1% of most deprived in England.
Despite closed business in deserted shopping areas, Bootle and Sefton, however, are ranked the same as Windsor, Cambridge and the City of London in the government's levelling Up Fund Index which targets places most in need of investment.
It goes towards infrastructural projects and not directly into people’s pockets and can help regeneration and improve employment opportunities, health, wealth and the general feel of an area.
As it stands Bootle is in category three, while the rest of the Liverpool city region is in category one, seen as the most in need.
The department of Levelling Up said the metrics used to calculate the Levelling Up Fund Index are “fair, robust and transparent and are published online.”
There is however growing concern that Bootle will be overlooked in new levelling up funding
Paulene Connell, deputy chief executive at the Independence initiative, described her feelings on hearing Bootle’s comparison with areas like Windsor as one of frustration.
She said: “Their formula is wrong. There have always been intergenerational problems around the docks closing, unemployment and social deprivation. That’s been historic in the Bootle area.
Ms Connell says the growing popularity of the pantry means its shelves are getting “emptier quicker”
She said: “Two or three years ago, most of these people wouldn't have been here.
“Home Bargains and B&M are not as cheap as they used to be. Same with Heron Foods, Farmfoods. All the prices have gone up. People are now targeting where the pantries are as part of a food strategy to get by.”
She warned the deepening cost of living crisis and the need to level up Bootle isn’t just a case of lifting people out of food and fuel poverty.
She added: “What about family poverty and experience poverty, taking children to the cinema and on holidays? Some children don't even know what an aquarium is as they can't access them.
“These issues are prevalent in Bootle; it'll cause a knock-on effect for the next generation.”
Laura Harlock, Pantry Lead within the organisation said those in the area will not show their true feelings.
She said: “People are proud. If you haven't washed properly or your house is dirty it isolates you.
"It's a whole other social aspect. Kids don't want to invite their friends after school."
Laura has seen Bootle change but does say there’s now more community support than ever.
She added: “The community are trying to take Bootle back. Gardening groups trying to improve the parks.
“It’s as though people said ‘enough is enough’.
