‘Eating is a luxury!’ Mum-of-two on Universal Credit ‘can’t live’ as bills soar

With rising inflation and the removal of the temporary £20-per-week uplift to Universal Credit, some families are facing financial difficulties. This is the case for mum of two Leanne, who works 37 hours a week as a finance officer, and claims Universal Credit.

However, despite this, she still needed to claim food vouchers to help her and her family get by.

Sharing her story with Action for Children, she said: “I have no disposable income whatsoever. 

“My electricity bill has gone from £188 to £279 a month, my council tax has gone up and I’ve had to increase my oil payments – last year they were 19.5p per litre, and now they’re over £1.23.

“You read the reports about energy bills reaching £3,000 by the winter – how the heck are we going to afford that? We literally can’t live.

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The charity has called upon the Chancellor to do more for families worst impacted by the cost of living crisis.

They have urged the Government to raise benefits in line with inflation, and raise the child element of Universal Credit.

Imran Hussain, director of policy and campaigns at Action for Children, said: “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. 

“There is so much more our Government can do in these tough times to prevent those with the least from continuing to suffer the most.”

A DWP spokesperson told Express.co.uk: “We are committed to ending poverty and the latest figures show there were half a million fewer children in absolute poverty after housing costs than in 2009/10.

“We recognise the pressures on the cost of living and we are doing what we can to help, including spending £22 billion across the next financial year to support people with energy bills and cut fuel duty.

“For the hardest hit, we’re putting an average of £1,000 more per year into the pockets of working families on Universal Credit, have also boosted the minimum wage by more than £1,000 a year for full-time workers and our Household Support Fund is there to help with the cost of everyday essentials.”