Low-income households in UK living in ‘year of financial fear’ says charity
About 7 million struggling families in the UK are living through a “frightening year of financial fear”, going without food, heating, toiletries and even showering as they try to cope with the cost of living crisis, a leading charity has said.
Many people are falling deep into debt as they try to stay afloat, using credit cards or cash from loan sharks to pay for food and other basics and building up arrears on energy bills, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), an anti-poverty charity.
The extent of the crisis facing low-income households was so serious that more than 2 million households were no longer choosing between “heating or eating” because they had already gone without both, the charity said.
Although it welcomed the government’s cost of living support package announced last month, JRF said the chancellor’s £15bn intervention “didn’t even touch the sides” when it came to addressing the financial difficulties faced by the poorest households.
The charity also criticised the government for “making an already bad situation far worse” by using the benefit system to collect debts. Nearly half of all universal credit claimants had an average of £61 deducted from their benefits each month.
Some households were having up to £130 a month, or a quarter of their entitlement, deducted from their benefits – often for historical tax credit overpayments or advance loans issued to tide them over the five-week waiting period for new claims.
“Our research illustrates the frightening year of financial fear low-income families are living through. Families up and down the country have been faced with options that are simple but grim: fall behind on bills, go without essentials like enough food, or take on expensive debt at
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