Charity’s poverty warning
THE cost of living crisis is pushing more and more people into “heartbreaking” struggles and making the North East’s descent into poverty even worse, a charity has warned.
Our region was last week named as the UK’s new child poverty capital, with more than one in three youngsters here growing up in deprivation.
The child poverty rate in the North East in 2014/15 was below the national average at 26%, but in the following six years rocketed to the the worst in the country 38% and is now likely even worse as families face a raft of escalating bills.
Those harrowing statistics made for grim reading but came as no surprise to staff at the Cedarwood Trust.
The charity, based on the Meadow Well Estate in North Shields, has seen a major upturn in the number of people turning to it for help as they grapple with the crippling cost of food, energy bills, and childcare.
Andy Urwin, the charity’s operations manager, said: “It is horrendous. It is not just people on benefits who are struggling any more, there is so much hidden poverty out there. It is affecting people who have a job, a mortgage, a car. Through the pandemic they might have been on furlough and that cut into their savings.
“It just takes something like a car repair or a broken boiler to push you over the edge and we are now seeing more and more working people coming to us for help.
“Government strategy needs to change. Levelling up is not working, trickle-down economics where you invest in CEOs and they supposedly pay people more does not work - people’s wages are not going up.”
The charity’s base recently underwent a major refurbishment and saw the launch of a new Nourish Store, where people in need can pay £4 to get £16 worth of shopping - including fresh fruit and veg, full meals cooked in the trust’s kitchen, and essential toiletries.
The store is approaching 400 members since launching last October and now has five new people signing up every day as the cost of living crisis continues to bite.
Andy says he hopes the shop, which has the look of a high-end market, will act as a “bridge between food banks and Tesco”, giving people the help they need to put food on the table while allowing them to retain their self-respect as they are still paying for it.
Meadow Well is among the most deprived parts of North Tyneside and life expectancy there has been estimated at a staggering 12 years less than affluent Tynemouth, just a mile and a half away.
And Cherri Bray, the trust’s deputy CEO, says there has been a “huge increase” in demand from locals and that the charity’s focus has “definitely gone towards poverty and crisis mode”.
She added: “People are struggling with bills and the demand we have for things like nappies and baby wipes is massive now.”
The services offered out of the Avon Avenue centre include advice on managing a budget and ensuring people are claiming all of the benefits they are entitled to, as well as free activities for young children.
Senior early years consultant Kathryn McAndrew says the pressure of the cost of living crisis is making some parents go without food in order to feed their kids and has led others to quit their jobs because their wages are not keeping up with the cost of childcare.
She added: “A lot of parents literally do not have a penny left. Things were already bad because of Covid and job losses, but now on a daily basis I am seeing parents who are cutting back on food for themselves because they do not have enough money to pay the bills and feed their kids.
“Without the shop here, a lot of parents would really struggle. People in full-time work are still having to access food banks, trying to find any way possible to shave some pennies off their bills. It is heartbreaking.”
The government defended its record on tackling poverty, saying it had “expanded access to free school meals more than any other government in recent decades, while vulnerable families in England are being supported by the government’s Household Support Fund - which was recently boosted by another £500million”.
A spokesperson added: “The latest figures show there were 500,000 fewer children in absolute poverty after housing costs than in 2009/10.”