New polls reveal over half of UK parents with children at home are having to limit their energy usage.
UK charity, Christians Against Poverty (CAP) alongside hundreds of churches are launching an urgent appeal aiming to raise £260,000 to provide families in poverty with emergency aid and help out of debt ahead of this Christmas.
It comes as CAP’s latest YouGov polling is revealing:
- Over half (54%) of UK parents with children in the household limited their electricity or gas use in the house at least once a month
- A quarter (25%) of parents with children living at home have skipped meals
- Almost 1 in 5 (19%) households with children sometimes or often couldn’t pay all their bills and living costs without borrowing money
- 28% of UK adults with children have a deficit budget which is when a person’s income doesn’t cover the cost of the core essentials they need to live on, that compares to 19% without children
CAP’s emergency aid and free debt advice was a lifeline for Yorkshire husband and wife, Paul and Sam, and their two youngest children.
Paul and Sam previously ran a successful construction business but as material costs shot up Paul had to work longer hours until he reached breaking point. He suffered a stroke and was unable to work. The family quickly fell into thousands of pounds of debt and had enforcement agents knocking at their door just before last Christmas. Paul explains how debt impacted them, “It affected everything. Everything just felt like it was falling apart, just crumpling. I then had a stroke”
Sam said, “Paul was drinking out of a straw for 12 weeks, at the time we had no way of knowing when he’d be well again. We were thinking if we just cut enough, if we just live as small as possible we could keep it under control. But you can’t. It was December, almost Christmas and we had bailiffs knocking at our door. It was just horrible.”
The family contacted CAP for help. Sam said, “The day Christians Against Poverty came to see us and provide free debt advice we had £2 left on our energy metre. Our CAP debt coach, Jonathan, provided us with a gas & electric top up. The timing of it was literally when we had nothing, when we needed it the most. He gave us vouchers for gas and electric, food and our phones. Honestly we wouldn’t have managed. Then to later get that certificate saying we had gone debt free was brilliant and Jonathan walked that whole journey with us.”
Paul said, “Basically, he saved our lives.”
By donating to CAP’s winter appeal at capuk.org/winter you can provide light and hope to a family in the darkest moment of their lives.
