Tag Archives: fuel poverty

Life on a low income in the UK today

July 27, 2016   Carers, disability, family, Featured Article, fuel poverty, Older care, ukcuts

Part of Solve UK poverty

Making ends meet when you have very little is extremely hard work. More than one in three families in the UK today – over two million families – have an inadequate income.

A new report by Loughborough University for JRF Falling short: the experiences of families living below the Minimum Income Standard looks at 30 families who are all living below the Minimum Income Standard (MIS). This is an income level determined by regular research asking the public what they think is required for an acceptable living standard in the UK today – including social participation as well as physical essentials. Some are managing to get by, but can’t imagine being able to stretch to a day trip or low cost family holiday. Others struggle to afford material necessities like food and school uniforms.

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Rising prices ‘hit poor the hardest’

November 5, 2014   Carers, Featured Article, fuel poverty, mental health, poverty
  • by James Reed, Political Correspondent

A new report suggests thousands more people are living in absolute poverty than recorded by official figures.

Research by the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies argues that Government statistics fail to take into account the fact that the rising cost of living hits poorer families harder than those on higher incomes.

It found households with the lowest incomes have seen prices rise by 50 per cent in the last decade compared to 43 per cent for the wealthiest.

That translates into an extra 300,000 people in absolute poverty, the IFS says in research published by the York-based Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF).

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Widow left to rely on food banks after benefit bosses cut payments

March 13, 2014   benefits, Cancer, Carers

Debbie Hopley’s husband, John, was just 49, when he died from cancer last month

Deborah Hopley from Kirkby holding a picture of her late husband John Hopley.

A widow said she was left reliant on food banks after benefits bosses cut payments and held up funeral bills two days after her husband’s death.

Debbie Hopley’s husband, John, was just 49 when he died on February 11, following a nine-year battle with cancer.

But, in the week between his death and the funeral, Mrs Hopley said she was told the money they and their two children had survived off through his illness was suddenly being stopped.

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