Poor families skipping meals and unable to afford heating, charity says
Hard-up families are skipping meals, wearing coats indoors to stay warm, and living in the dark because they can’t afford to switch on the lights, according to a leading children’s charity.
Action for Children said in one case a boy it worked with had been off school with sore feet caused by chilblains. The boy told charity workers that the house was cold all the time because the heating was not on, and he and his siblings were wearing coats inside and sharing beds at night to keep warm.
In another case, a parent told charity workers she would take her toddler to bed with their tea when they got back from nursery “just to keep warm”. Other clients described being unable to afford school uniforms, struggling to afford food, and trying to heat a room with a single gas hob.
Current levels of severe and persistent hardship among families supported by the charity’s children’s centres, triggered by cuts to universal credit and rising energy bills, were among the worst it could remember, said Action for Children’s director of policy, Imran Hussain.
“The worst pain and misery of the cost of living crisis is being felt by children in low-income families, yet the government is refusing to target help for these children or accept that it needs to rethink its huge cut to universal credit,” he said.
Ministers have refused to commit to extra direct help for families despite an average annual £700 rise in household fuel costs since April, and rising food insecurity. Families face the fastest fall in living standards this year since the 1950s, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility.
A children’s hardship fund set up by the charity two years ago to provide one-off help to struggling families during the pandemic has evolved into a
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