Brighton and Hove is on the verge of a “poverty bomb” next winter unlike anything it’s experienced in working memory, a local charity is warning.
Citizens Advice Brighton and Hove today publishes a report highlighting an 82 per cent increase in the number of city households unemployed and on universal credit since the pandemic – a rise of more than 4,000.
It also points to government figures showing one in three children in the Brighton Kemptown constituency were living in poverty in 2019-20, and one in four in Brighton Pavilion and Hove.
And it says this figure is likely to rise further as children entitled to free school meals in the city rose by 17 per cent from January 2021 to January 2022.
Meanwhile, a sharp rise is forecast in the cost of living – driven partly by skyrocketing fuel costs, but also by rises in the cost of food and housing.
Partnership manager Emma Daniel said: “For those in the deepest poverty, the outlook for this winter is incredibly bleak.
“Already clients who most need to take care of their health are turning off power in their homes. In wintertime when we expect a further price rise in utilities, both the health impacts and the safety concerns become critical.
“For the first time in working memory we have a cohort of clients where no matter what we or they do for themselves, will not be able to heat or eat on an ongoing basis, rather than in a crisis or where an unexpected expense arises.
“Services which normally provide limited crisis help such as ours will need to consider changing our models and provide ongoing support such as food or fuel vouchers in order to prevent serious health impacts.
“It will be important for services to distinguish carefully the difference between extreme poverty and neglect and not penalise people for being poor but provide emergency relief where that is the issue.
“Schools and charities will find themselves on the front line of a poverty bomb next winter that we have never experienced before and find hard to contemplate.”
The number of universal credit claimants searching for work has risen from 4994 in December 2019 to 9129 in December 2021.
The report has found those likely to be in the deepest poverty are single parent families, households where someone is disabled and households where the head is from a BAME community.
It also says households in rented accommodation are more likely to have poverty.
It quotes Brighton and Hove City Council’s housing market report which found the cost of privately renting a one-bedroom flat has risen 25.4 per cent from the last three months of 2020 to the same period in 2021.
The cost of privately renting a three-bedroom house has increased by 9.1 per cent in the same period.
I wonder why? Everything going up around 10 percent while income increases 3 percent which doesn’t keep up with inflation.
Someone increases prices, then others follow suit to follow inflation and record profits. Do they need to increase prices that much?
Funny it is a Tesco’s box in the picture with their tripled profit now at £2 Billion
Just saying…
I’m surprised that universal credit payments have doubled in the city. There are record numbers of job vacancies at the moment and so I’m wondering why this should be the case.
Around half of people receiving Universal Credit are in work; I’d imagine with the current cost of living crisis that proportion has gone up.
Iwould be interested to know how much the wage bill has gone up for Brighton council. Council tax bills have shot up and the council offices are still shut for members of the public. I’m wondering how much this has hit productivity and affected staffing numbers and costs.