9 minute read
Living emergency
Living emergency
Ruth Sanderson considers the rising cost of living and how we should respond.
As temperatures rise and the first heat of spring starts to warm us, a wave of relief passes over. Not only has the winter passed, but we can turn the radiators off without having to put a coat on in the house. My family and I moved to the north east of Scotland a couple of years ago, so turning off the heat before its time feels pretty drastic! However, we recently received the same letter as other households in Scotland, England and Wales saying that our heating and electricity bills were set to rise by 54%.
The start of April saw a rise in the energy price cap allowed to suppliers – i.e. the maximum companies can charge for gas and electricty. However, the cap does not feature in Northern Ireland – it has a separate energy market with its own system of price regulation. Likewise the government in the Republic of Ireland has said it is not in a position to place a cap on rising energy prices as it imports so much of it from other countries.
Those of us living in Great Britain get rising wholesale costs passed on to us in two huge lumps (April and October) whereas in Ireland and Northern Ireland, fluctuating costs can be passed on bit by bit throughout the year, making things even more unpredictable.
Regardless of where you live, it means everyone gets the pain of rising prices, albeit at slightly staggered times. It’s estimated that the average home will face paying an extra £700 per year, with that set to rise as we come into the winter.
The reason for this stratospheric rise has been driven largely by a surge in natural gas prices due to increased demand for gas from China and Asia, and a cold winter in Europe in 2020/21. This meant that stored gas supplies were used, pushing prices up. Ironically, it became a perfect storm when a lack of wind over the summer then hit renewable sources of energy, increasing demand for gas.
However, if this wasn’t enough, prices have risen even higher following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with oil prices climbing to record highs. It’s feared that the energy price cap could soar again in October as a result of the war, as natural resources climb in value.
It isn’t just heat. With the rising cost of oil comes the pain of filling up a tank of petrol for much more than we are accustomed to. A cut in VAT during the pandemic has been readjusted to its 20% pre-pandemic level, which means almost everything will cost a little bit more (or a lot more, depending on what you’re buying). Brexit has caused import and export costs to rise, meaning food prices have gone up. The supply chain costs more to run – don’t forget that most of what we consume has to be driven in lorries to us, which incur raised petrol charges, which in turn we pay for in the price of our food and goods.
We are victims of a global economy and events which happen thousands of miles away. We are basically sitting ducks, paying for cold winters and poor harvests, wars and expansionism. These factors end up in our colder homes and smaller shopping baskets.
Has anyone else been having the ‘where can we cut back?’ conversation at home recently? We have. It’s my least favourite topic of discussion, albeit a necessary one. These conversations change with the stage of life you are at, the job you have, the house you live in, the amount of children who live with you. Yet I can’t help but feel that everyone has been talking about the same thing lately.
These discussions have morphed from “Do we need to go on holiday this year?” to “How often do we really need to drive the car?” This time last year, even with lockdown, the measures we were considering (Could we put the heating
on less often? Can we wear extra layers? Could we cut back on more expensive food?) seemed far less punitive, yet extreme measures have become the norm.
I am acutely aware that we, up to this point, have been comfortable as a family; if not comfortable, then managing. We are both in work, we have a home, we run a car. We can – up to this point – afford to pay the bills. However, for the first time, the future looks uncertain. Yet if we are now talking about whether or not we can make ends meet each month, then I can’t imagine the desperation which millions of households now face.
I listen religiously to Radio 4, and each day I’ve been making a special point of paying particular attention to the programme You and Yours. Recently it has become a real barometer of the reality of life in this current cost of living crisis. Each day, voice after voice talks about ‘tips’ for survival… Wearing a sleeping bag if you’re working from home. Sitting in a shopping centre to warm up during the day. Sharing a bed with the kids so everyone can be warm enough at night. Skipping meals so that your children can eat. Selling the car and only going where you can walk to. These voices have become so normalised, so mundane, that all these suggestions are seen as reasonable steps to being able to continue with life.
I have also heard stories of schools not being able to continue to run extra activities for children so they can heat classrooms, as many of these children come from freezing homes. Or stories of foodbanks saying that people don’t want to take potatoes because the cost of energy to cook them costs too much. (As an aside, in last week’s Financial Times I read an article with a sanctioned oligarch living in London who was complaining that he might have to give up his personal chauffeur… what an unbalanced society we live in!).
What’s happening now is described as ‘eating or heating’, but in reality it’s ‘freezing or starving’. However, the impact of this crisis is not just about what we put on the table or in our oil tanks. When debt increases and hardship hits, so does anxiety and despair. It is a mental crisis as well as an economic one. Many feel as though they are failing themselves and their family. Deprivation is dreadful and goes hand in hand with a sense of personal failure. It erodes dignity and crushes the spirit.
As Christians we should care deeply about this crisis. But how do we apply the principles of our faith to tackling these issues? We can’t just sit back and pray for the second coming to hurry up in order to sort this mess out. God does not withdraw from our chaotic, messy, painful world. He breaks into it and uses us as his instruments of change. Jesus didn’t just save the lost, he fed the hungry.
The Presbyterian Church already does fantastic work in trying to help those who are really struggling. Churches, aid agencies and Christian organisations dealing with poverty and debt do unspeakably valuable work in times like this, offering practical help and support.
The organisation Christians Against Poverty (CAP) has advocated for tens of thousands of people struggling with debt and the cost of living, and they are only seeing the number of people contacting them increase. CAP says, “We are already seeing a significant increase in demand for our free debt help in many parts of the UK and we are concerned many more people will need support as the cost of energy spirals out of control. CAP has seen requests for emergency fuel vouchers double in the first two months of this year compared to the first two months of 2021 – highlighting the impact that the energy crisis is already having. CAP
has also delivered over £23,000 worth of crisis support in the first two months of 2022 which includes emergency fuel vouchers, food shops and essential items.”
Meanwhile, the Trussell Trust that runs over 1,200 foodbanks throughout the UK has seen its usage dramatically increase during the pandemic and further still as the cost of living crisis begins to bite. The Trust says there has not been enough government help for those living on benefits and those with severely limited income, as benefits have not risen with the cost of inflation. In fact, there have been seven benefit freezes in the past decade. “People are already making impossible decisions between heating and eating, and we know people are skipping meals, unable to afford to run cookers and fridges and taking on debt to buy the essentials. This is not right. By failing to make benefits payments realistic for the times we face, the government is risking turning the cost of living crisis into an emergency.”
However, organisations like CAP, the Trussell Trust and others like them can’t always plug the gap. Surely it shouldn’t always be left to be those with a convicted spirit to be the ones holding the can or fighting for change? Don’t structural issues about the fairness of domestic and global politics come into it too? Otherwise, we will only be firefighting a larger, uncontrollable inferno.
We need to be engaged, not just in how our Church can help those who are really struggling, but in the bigger political landscapes which allow people to fall into poverty and despair in the first place. We can lobby our MPs, pray for international situations, think about who to vote for, not just along party lines, but about their policies on taxation, aid, charity. God asks us to be involved in all aspects of humankind.
The one thing we mustn’t do is shrug our shoulders and think the issues are too ‘big’ for us to impact upon. Plenty of people in the world already do that, yet it’s exactly what we as Christians must never do.
Signposts to help
If you are affected by any of the issues mentioned in this article, you can seek help through contacting the following organisations:
Christians Against Poverty (CAP) 0800 328 0006 www.capuk.org
Advice NI 0800 915 4604 www.adviceni.net
Presbyterian Children’s Society +44 (0)28 9032 3737 www.presbyterianchildrenssociety.org
Money Advice and Budgeting Service (RoI) 0818 07 2000 www.mabs.ie
