No Rest For The Wicked

This blog post delves into the grim reality of walking the breadline, warts and all. From food insecurity and food aid, to fuel poverty and barriers to employment. Everything you're about to read is entirely real and based on my own experience. 

In my last blog post "#Exhausted" I briefly touched upon food insecurity. The rate of pay for welfare has been frozen for four consecutive years at £79 per week. Meanwhile the cost of living and more importantly the cost of food has continued to rise with inflation. This leaves an ever tightening of one's belt. 

As previously mentioned, most people walking the breadline don't have other means of finance to fall back on, so when prices rise our budgets don't rise with them, we simply buy less. Raising food budgets simply isn't an option for millions. 

Personally I am half way through my pay cycle and already running out of food. I've been on one meal a day for the last few days and I'm about to run out all together. I can access a local food bank in four days but I won't be eating until then. 

All of this undoubtedly affects the human body. Food is our source of energy. The very energy that is used to keep our vital organs working and systems running that keeps us alive. It is essential to our survival as human beings and should be universally accessible. 

I accept that food insecurity in a first world country is nothing compared to the millions dying of famine in countries like Yemen but that's not what this blog is about.

Not only does food insecurity have a detrimental impact physical strength and energy levels, it also affects our emotional well-being and can induce stress. Hunger impacts mood in many ways. Different people deal with hunger differently. Some will simply go without, some will be reduced to stealing, some will go rooting through supermarket bins. 

There is the option of food banks, but many of them limit how many visits you can make a month and the parcel itself will have three days worth of food. Not many people consider what visiting a food bank does to a person. You don't go when things are good. It's soul destroying when you find yourself on a food bank doorstep.

Fuel poverty is also an issue for many living below the breadline. Typically we will be prepayment customers for utilities. Meaning we have to pay upfront. 

No money 💰 = No gas, no electricity 🚫

Prepay meters have an 'emergency credit' feature inbuilt into them. It's £6 of credit applied onto your meter and you repay it on your next top up. I've got less than £2 of Gas and £3 of Electricity left of that emergency credit. Once it runs out my utilities will cut out. 

I've got a total of 79p to my name so there's no chance of topping up the fuels or buying food and I've got 12 days to go until I get paid. 

The image below is my fridge right now 👇👇

Contents: Salad Cream, Mint Sauce, Goose Fat, Butter, Two slices of ham and one onion. The cupboards are bare and the freezer is no better.

I don't think I can ever put into words what food insecurity does to your emotional well-being. It weighs heavily on you, causes stress and worry which in turn can lead to sleep problems and cognitive impairment. 

This is my reality and my story of welfare and it's just one story of life below the breadline. There are those in even worse positions than I. What I do ask is you forget what the press and government tell you about welfare and poverty. If you really want to know what it's like don't ask a politician, ask those of us on the bottom rungs of the ladder.

My next blog will center around my visit to the food bank in a few days, so keep an eye out for that. 

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Find me on Twitter @NorthernLefty