We say: Rising energy prices a “national emergency”
We are standing with charities committed to ending poverty in urging the next Prime Minister to reassure low-income families they will receive sufficient support through a “national emergency”.
Alongside 70 charities and community organisations, Children North East have signed a letter calling on the two remaining Conservative Party leadership candidates to show “compassion and leadership” to working-age low-income families by making up the minimum expected £1,600 shortfall they face this winter.
Our letter states, “this situation cannot be allowed continue” and the prospective Conservative Party leader must ensure the social security system always provides enough to be able to afford the essentials. It also calls on Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak to commit to making debt deduction rates from benefits more affordable. MPs said these deductions pushed households into destitution and to depend on food banks.
“You were both senior members of a government that pledged to ensure that the most vulnerable and least well off get the support they need. It is only right that this be your top priority should you take office,” it ends.
If you would like to also take action and ask for more support during this national emergency, you can write to your MP.
Guidance on writing to your MP:
- Identify their contact details using the Directory of MPs
- Remember to always include your own address when you write to your MP so that they will know you live in their constituency
- If writing is not possible, you can telephone your MP’s office for the best alternative course of action
- Access more guidance on contacting your MP on the Parliament website
The full text of the letter is below:
Dear candidates
We believe the impact of the cost-of living crisis on low-income households is the gravest issue our country faces.
So far this year, nearly three quarters of low-income households[1] receiving Universal Credit or other means-tested benefits, many of them working families, have been forced to go without at least one essential. This means people having to skip meals or not being able to heat their homes properly.
Many of our organisations work directly with these families and are becoming overwhelmed, too often unable to provide the support so desperately needed.
This situation cannot be allowed to continue. As the prospective leaders of this country, we urge you to act now to demonstrate the compassion and leadership needed to tackle this issue head on.
We ask you both to pledge that, under your premiership, everyone who needs it will be properly supported when they hit hard times. This means ensuring that, at a minimum, the social security system always provides people with enough to be able to afford the essentials.
Low-income households need urgent reassurance now that they will receive sufficient support to weather the cost-of-living storm as it intensifies further this winter. This means committing to:
Ensuring that low-income households are provided with sufficient support to cope with the average £2,800 rise in the cost of living they face to April 2023. Given the £1,200 in core support committed so far to households on means tested benefits, this means this support should be at least doubled. It should also vary by need, with higher payments for households with higher needs, for instance families with children.
The most efficient way to provide this support would be through further payments through the social security system. Making debt deduction rates from benefits more affordable. Those subject to debt deductions face particularly high levels of hardship. This simple, low-cost action would enable people to keep more of their money and immediately relieve some of the financial pain they are enduring.
You were both senior members of a government that pledged to ensure that the most vulnerable and least well off get the support they need. It is only right that this be your top priority should you take office.
Yours Sincerely,
Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Save the Children UK
The Trussell Trust
The Children’s Society
The Trade Unions Congress
StepChange Debt Charity
Scope
Age UK
Shelter
Centre for Progressive Policy
St Mungo’s
Rethink Mental Illness
Macmillan Cancer Support
Mind
Oxfam GB
Action for Children
Centrepoint
Turn2Us
Young Women’s Trust
Royal National Institute of Blind People
Christians Against Poverty UK
FareShare UK
MS Society
Money Advice Trust
Trust for London
Motor Neurone Disease Association
Carers UK
Parkinsons UK
The Money and Mental Health Policy Institute
British Association of Social Workers
The Independent Food Aid Network
Policy in Practice
Lloyds Bank Foundation for England & Wales
Gingerbread
Generation Rent
Nacro
The Food Foundation
Disability Benefits Consortium
End Furniture Poverty UK
PlaceShapers
North East Child Poverty Commission
Children North East
The Bevan Foundation
The Poverty Alliance
The Association of Charitable Organisations
Sustain
One Parent Families Scotland
The Equality Trust
4in10 London’s Child Poverty Network
Communities that Work
The Mighty Creatives
Karbon Homes
Chartered Institute of Housing
National Federation of ALMOs
Poverty Truth Community
Home-Start UK
Family Fund
We Care Campaign
The Hygiene Bank
Glass Door Homeless Charity
Citizens Advice Scotland
Mencap
Transforming Lives for Good
Leonard Cheshire
Charity Finance Group
Women’s Regional Consortium Northern Ireland
Feeding Britain
UK Community Foundations
APLE Collective
Debt Justice
Greater Manchester Poverty Action
National Education Union
Just Fair
[1] Source: Joseph Rowntree Foundation (June 2022) Not heating, eating or meeting bills: managing a cost of living crisis on a low income. This surveyed ‘low-income’ households in the bottom 40% of incomes, including the approximately 5.6 million of these that claim means-tested benefits.
