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Mairead Wright is employment skills and enterprise manager at the Longhurst Group
With the safety net gone, the government must ensure there is a functioning social security system
Mairead Wright explains how the cost of living crisis is leaving residents without the ability to weather life’s changes and why political leaders must take action
I know from personal experience how quickly your circumstances can change overnight. I remember lying awake at night, sleep a distant memory as I worried about how I was going to pay the bills and doing the maths in my head, then realising that there wasn’t enough money.
Once you’ve been in that kind of situation, that feeling never quite goes away. It’s like the rug might be swept from underneath your feet at any moment.
Whether it’s a relationship breakdown, a bereavement, illness, losing your job, or economic abuse, one event out of your control can cause a chain reaction of negative outcomes. When that happens, you’d hope there’d be an adequate safety net to support you, especially one that you may have been paying into for many years.
The coronavirus pandemic demonstrated how quickly and unexpectedly things can change.
One of our customers, Steven, experienced this when he lost his wife, was made redundant and suffered a severe decline in his health – all within a short space of time and without the wider network of support that many of us take for granted.
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When the local job centre referred Steven to us, he had a monthly deficit and was getting further into debt. We were able to go through his income and expenditure, create budget plans, apply for grants as and when available, contact utility companies to try reduce bills and check benefits entitlements. We used everything we had at our discretion, such as digital schemes, grants and hardship payments.
“That’s why as PlaceShapers we have joined 93 organisations calling on all political leaders to ensure a social security system that supports us all to afford the essentials”
A big part of our support was treating Steven as an individual. Like everyone, he has his own unique circumstances and preferences, and we worked together to help him live independently, safely and comfortably in his own home.
Many people, like Steven, who were just getting by, have now seen their challenges exacerbated by the cost of living crisis. Some people are cutting back or going without completely and it’s still not enough.
Back in 2017, data from the Office for National Statistics on persistent poverty demonstrated that a third of people couldn’t afford an unexpected expense. Now, people can’t even afford the day-to-day essentials.
We’re not talking about luxuries, or people needing to ‘accept that they’re poorer’, this is day-to-day, essential living costs. This is also in addition to rent and council tax, eating, keeping warm, being able to clothe oneself, personal care, travel and communicate with others.
That’s why as PlaceShapers we have joined 93 organisations calling on all political leaders to ensure a social security system that supports us all to afford the essentials. The basic rate of Universal Credit must at least cover life’s essentials. We all deserve to be treated with dignity, compassion and respect.
“One event out of your control can cause a chain reaction of negative outcomes. When that happens, you’d hope there’d be an adequate safety net to support you”
The current social security system isn’t helping people to manage and improve their situation. Almost half of low-income households on Universal Credit are seeing their monthly payments reduced due to deductions and caps, leaving them with even less to cover the basics and encouraging a cycle of debt.
Benefit rates haven’t been consistently and objectively applied over time and haven’t increased as they should. In response, an ever-growing list of poverty types is emerging – food poverty, fuel poverty, data poverty and period poverty – and the current support mechanisms, such as vouchers, grants, cost of living payments, a cap on bus fares, money off energy bills, are all only short-term solutions.
It’s unfair to expect people to live with the uncertainty about if and when extra support might come in. We need a long-term approach, and it’s absolutely essential that we do something now.
Mairead Wright, employment skills and enterprise manager, Longhurst Group
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