‘It’s a nightmare to keep on top of’
Soaring costs of living are causing already struggling families to plunge into further debt and face an impossible choice between eating and heating. Households are feeling the squeeze after an 8 per cent hike in prices of essentials, with typical gas and electricity bills almost doubling to £2,000 a year. According to the New Economics Foundation, more than 34pc of the population, which equates to as many as 23.5 million people, will be unable to afford the cost of living this year. YASMIN AL-NAJAR spoke to two residents both feeling the squeeze tighter than ever before who have turned to a Valley debt centre.
IN February regulator Ofgem confirmed that the energy price cap would soar by a record 54 per cent from April 1.
The scheduled 3.1 per cent rise in state pension, Universal Credit and other benefits fails to keep up with the price hike, leaving many families impoverished.
Single mum June Butterworth had to switch her job from a carer, a job she had her whole working life, to a cleaner working reduced hours at a care home in Bacup to look after her ill elderly mother.
The 44-year-old has accumulated £10,000 of debt and has taken out payday loans for necessities. Her debt for gas and electric escalated to more than £1,000 causing her to cancel a direct debit with the company and use pay as you go instead.
For the mother-of-two the sudden hike in the cost of living hit like a bombshell.
“When I heard the news that the cost of living was rising I was shocked,” said June.
“It is a nightmare to keep on top of. How are people supposed to survive? I can’t stop crying because you work all your life...it’s hard.
The future is looking like bankruptcy and I didn’t think this could happen to me.
“Even though you go to a debt company you can still end up bankrupt. It can happen to anyone.”
The largest chunk of debt June owes is council tax and consequently she has been threatened with court costs, and debt letters are littering her home.
After she split up with her partner she had to take time off work to look after her two young sons, now 26 and 22. Her family helped her with childcare to prevent debts she owed from mounting.
“My mum helps a lot but it’s not fair on her me having to keep borrowing money,” she adds.
“She’s a pensioner. I find myself further in debt borrowing from my family. It is either pay one bill or the other, or you either eat or put the heating on.
“I cannot afford to put my heating on so we layer with extra blankets and use hot water bottles.”
June works 32 and a half hours a week and earns £1,250 before tax each month, and gets a £100 Universal Credit allowance, but after tax and funding necessities she finds she has no spare change left over.
She pays £445 a month on rent and over £100 a week on grocery shopping to feed herself and her sons – as well as gas and electricity and water bills. Even when she worked over 40 hours a week she was still struggling to pay bills on time.
Her youngest son works part-time, but her eldest has been unemployed since his place of work told him that the company could no longer afford to keep employees under the government’s Kickstart Scheme because the minimum wage had risen.
She has been forced to make sacrifices with her social life to keep on top of mounting debts, and has cut back on taxi sharing and buying clothes.
Each month she pays Christians Against Poverty (CAP), a debt centre she has been with for a year, £195 to pay back her debts and says she was told by them that it would take approximately two and a half years to clear them.
However, because her wages do not match the recent rise of the cost of living, it will take her at least three years to pay them off.
Brian Harper, 53, from Rawtenstall, was diagnosed with depression when he went through a divorce four years ago with his wife with whom he has three children aged 11, 16 and 19.
The father-of-three has been using CAP’s services for four years to assist him with paying a total debt of £3,000 which includes rent, council tax, and gas and electricity.
Brian used to earn £1,000 a month working 30 hours a week in a care home and despite now having a job in a restaurant between 36 and 40 hours, he is still struggling to keep up with the cost of living.
“I buried my head and things mounted up when I split with my wife,” he told the Free Press.
“I felt sick to the stomach when the rise of the cost of living was announced.
“I don’t know how anyone can survive and it’ll be going up again.
“I work, and I still struggle. I have cut back on heating and even stopped buying things for my children because I just can’t afford to do it any more.”
Monthly Brian spends £70 on gas and electricity, £150 on child maintenance and £37 on water, with his monthly wage of £1,200 after tax.
His place of work allows employees to eat for free if they work more than six hours - which has helped Brian cut the cost of his grocery shop to £80 a month.
But every month he is still falling short by at least £60 and has borrowed off friends to keep afloat. Currently he is under a suspended possession order, but if he does not pay back his debt to the landlord he faces eviction.
Christians Against Poverty (CAP) Rossendale Debt Centre provides a free, home-based debt counselling service for those in unmanageable debt within the BB4 and OL13 postcodes. To contact CAP call 0800 328 0006.
“I can’t stop crying because you work all your life...it’s hard.”