Rather disapointingly Labour Party leader Keir Starmer has so far reaffirmed his recent decision not to scrap the two-child benefit cap. His reasoning for making this decision is financial stating that there will have to be more ‘tough choices’ if Labour is to win the next election.
At the recent Future of Britain conference, Starmer said Labour had had to make “really ruthless” decisions telling his top team: “Tough choices is not a soundbite. We’re going to have to take them. Without them, we don’t get to the next stage.”
Senior Labour MP Stella Creasy went on to argue that scrapping the cap could in fact save money as it was “potentially costing more than it is saving” as greater hardship prevented people from finding work”.
The two child benefit cap policy was introduced by George Osborne when he was Tory chancellor. This cruel policy prevents parents from claiming universal credit for any third or subsequent child. Scrapping the two child cap would take approximately 270,000 households with children out of poverty at an estimated cost of £1.4bn in the first year.
The benefits far outweigh the decision to keep this cruel policy. Parents would be able to afford more basic essentials to keep their children healthy and happy. This in turn would lessen families reliance upon food banks and other emergency services. It would also improve physical and mental health of both parents and children which subsequently will cut down pressure on the NHS.
It would also improve both local and national economies, if people have more money to shop locally for food and essentials the economy will improve. I accept that this wouldn’t happen overnight, but it would undoubtedly help especially when we’re experiencing a massive cost of living crisis.
Starmer has agreed that the current mood of the country is “pretty bleak” as he set out the need to reassure voters about the situation while also setting out a vision for the future. Repurposing a slogan used by New Labour, he said: “We need three things: growth, growth, growth.”
The real ‘tough choices’ are being made everyday by parents unable to provide food and clothing for their children often going without meals themselves so their children can eat. I honestly don’t think he realises how bad it is for them. If he did he would make it a priority to stop this cruel policy.
For working class people their futures are looking even bleaker than he can imagine and not making the decision to end the two child limit policy is in my eyes the wrong thing to do. I’d like to ask him several things; what have these children done to you to make you act in such a manner? Don’t they deserve a decent quality of life? Why are you enabling the continuance of their suffering which will prove to be more expensive for the country in the long term?
Call me old fashioned if you like but I believe that every child matters, that they all should have a decent quality of life, a decent education and given the support that they need to do so. Starmer should keep in mind that these children forced to live in poverty are our both our future and the countries also. They’ll eventually become the ones to make important decisions, help improve the economy and be the employees that provide the essential services that we will be dependant on when we get older.
This decision isn’t a vote winner either, decisions like this will stop people from voting labour in future elections. They aren’t going to vote for a political party that ultimately doesn’t represent them in any way and won’t fight of change on their behalf.
I hope that Keir Starmer changes his mind and decides to put our children health and wellbeing as a priority because they deserve it.
Figures released by the DWP (Department of Work and Pensions) in June have revealed that 25.5% of PIP AR1 review forms were returned late or not at all in the 12 months to February of this year (2023)
According to Viscount Younger, 5th Viscount Younger of Leckie, an elected hereditary peer who sits on the Conservative benches in the House of Lords), only 7% of claimants who received an AR1 form were disallowed for non-return.
Some claimants already have an additional support marker which means that decisions can be made without the form being returned.
Other claimants may have been granted an extension of time for returning the form.
However returning a PIP form can be extremely difficult to say the least due to the DWP’s telephony chaos and their lack of urgency to resolve it.
Alternatively claimants have also reported receiving their renewal forms with only a week remaining to fill it in and post it.
This then results in the claimant trying to phone the PIP line up to get an extension and not able to get through to any help.
Other claimants have also reported receiving less time to complete and return the form also confirming that when they try to phone up to request an extension their calls are being cut off.
I suspect that thousands of PIP claimants are being refused their payments because they are prevented from requesting an extension as a result of not being able to talk to anyone on the PIP line.
If this happens to you you can appeal their decision.
The amount of already vulnerable people forced to suffer even more because of the government’s incompetency is immense and shouldn’t be ignored.
These people are your neighbours, friends, relatives and each and every one of them deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. They all deserve to receive their PIP payments to help them cover their everyday needs.
It’s a scandal that this is happening and I urge to contact your local MP and voice your opinion on this. If you don’t tell them they won’t know the impact that this is having on you.
Digital aspects of universal credit (UC) has routinely lead to wrong payments being awarded to claimants which are often the most vulnerable claimants – and therefore breaches rule-of-law principles, new Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) research finds.
The three-year study found that while the digital nature of the benefit has some advantages for UC claimants, the way the digital systems have been designed can also lead to people being left without vital money they are entitled to and information they need in order to challenge DWP decisions.
In the worst cases claimants are forced into acute hardship because the programming and operation of this digital- by-design benefit does not align with social security legislation.
The charity’s report catalogues numerous injustices and breaches of rule-of-law principles in the operation of digital UC systems and reveals the extent to which its workings are opaque for claimants and researchers.
Problems uncovered by CPAG’s research include people missing out on additional support they are entitled to because the online claims process does not identify their needs. Families are going without their entitlements for all children because verification paperwork is pending for one child.
Care leavers are also unable to submit a digital claim in advance of their 18th birthday even though DWP guidance enables this.
Worryingly, the research found that in the year ending February 2023, approximately one-third of the 2.9 million registrations for UC did not result in a claim being submitted at all but there appears to be no DWP information in the public domain on why the drop-out rate is so high.
CPAG’s research suggests that aspects of the digital claim form that make it difficult for some claimants to complete the form and establish their entitlement may explain at least some of these abandoned claims.
Digital claim form does not ask all the right questions
Some claimants are entitled by legislation to extra amounts of UC or exemptions from the standard rules of UC.
This can be because of their particular circumstances (for example if they have a health condition, are escaping domestic violence, are carers or care leavers).
However the digital claim form doesn’t always ask claimants if they meet any of the conditions for these extra amounts or exemptions. As a result of this claimants – who are not experts on the complex UC rules – don’t always get a fair chance to establish their entitlement.
In the worst cases, vulnerable people go without extra money or exemptions they should have.
For example, while UC claimants under the age of 35 renting in the private sector will receive the shared accommodation rate of the Local Housing Allowance (LHA), there are exceptions to this for claimants with certain rates of disability benefits, and claimants who have lived in homeless accommodation for three months or more while receiving specific support. These claimants are entitled to the higher one-bedroom rate of LHA.
However, the online claims process doesn’t ask claimants if they meet any of these conditions. Instead, the DWP expects claimants to understand the complexities of the housing cost element regulations and self-identify as having the specific circumstances and characteristics that exempt them from the shared accommodation rate.
This breaches the rule-of-law principle of procedural fairness and is a failure of the duty to make reasonable enquiries.
By failing to ask all the relevant questions, the UC system systematically discriminates against groups entitled to additional support – the very same groups who by definition are often the most vulnerable and at risk of discrimination because of their extra needs.
Nor does the digital claim form ask claimants what date they want to claim from even though backdating by up to one month for example if a claimant ‘couldn’t reasonably be expected to make the claim earlier’ for reasons including and not excluding having a disability, or a system failure.
Claimants can request a revision of their claim so that it has an earlier start date, but the DWP does not establish in each case when a claimant wishes their claim to start from. This then places the onus on claimants to self-identify that a backdate is possible.
This leaves some claimants who are eligible for backdating – mostly people with health conditions or disabilities – without money they are entitled to.
CPAG wants claim forms amended to ask all claimants if they require backdating or want to claim from an earlier date.
All children in a family deprived of support if one child can’t be verified
The UC digital system is unable to accept the verification of individual children independently of other children in a household. This results in families missing out on their legal entitlement to the child element of UC for all of their children. This happens if there is a problem with providing evidence to verify just one child in a family.
The computer system clashes with social security regulations which entitle the children to support.
Early Warning System case – November 2022
A woman has three children, aged 10, 14 and 19. The woman has cancer and claimed UC in April, declaring her children via a change of circumstances in June. She couldn’t provide evidence of her eldest child’s education because he hadn’t been accepted into college yet and it wasn’t possible to provide evidence until the new school year.
The verification for all of the children failed because of the lack of evidence for one of her children. Since June, her UC award has only included the single person allowance, limited capability for work-related activity and housing costs restricted to a single person according to the local housing allowance (LHA) rules. There is no child element for any of the children and no additional bedrooms allowed for them in the LHA size criteria
Early Warning System case August 2022
This claimant has four children, for one of whom she receives Disability Living Allowance. The claimant had recorded this child as being on low-rate care, when she was in fact on mid-rate care. This is irrelevant for her UC…
DWP asked her to correct it but she missed the message because English is not her first language. As a result, she wasn’t paid the child element (or disabled child addition) for any of the children (all born pre-Apr 2017) for three consecutive assessment periods.
She also had no work allowance applied and her housing element was reduced as she was deemed to be under occupying with no children in the household.
She missed out on around £1,500 per month, was in extreme hardship and got into massive debt. [The case, from CPAG’s Early Warning System August 2022, was eventually resolved by a welfare rights adviser
Digital system can’t accept advance claims despite regulations permitting them
DWP guidance enables advance claims of up to one month for prisoners who are about to be released from custody and care leavers in advance of their 18th birthday.
These claimants can’t receive benefits while they are the responsibility of the local authority or are in prison but the legislation enables them to make a claim while support structures are in place.
In practice however, the digital UC system does not accept advance claims. One adviser told the CPAG research team:
Will (adviser) – October 2021
The law allows care leavers to make an advanced claim… It doesn’t mean you’ll get your money earlier… But what it does allow, which is very important for that group of people, is… about four weeks before they turn 18 … the social worker can go out, get their ID together, and explain what the process is. You press submit, sit back. They turn 18….. And in five weeks’ time the money comes.
That’s the way it should work… [But in reality the DWP] say you can do something called advanced preparation of a claim, but you can’t do an advanced claim… If you press submit it all b…..s up. What we find with our young people is, they quite often don’t want to, on the morning of their 18th birthday, go through a claim… it can be two or three weeks, sometimes longer, before they’ll come back to engage with the social worker…’
Claimants lose access to information they need:
When a decision on a UC award is revised or superseded (changed) with effect from an earlier date, it can generate an overpayment (if the amount of the award after the change is less than was previously awarded). This can also cause underpayments (if the amount of the award after the change is more than was previously awarded).
When the award is changed from an earlier date, claimants can no longer see the original decision because their payment statement in their online account is automatically updated to display only the new decision.
Without being able to compare the original with the new payment decision, claimants have insufficient information to identify whether any overpayments or underpayments have been calculated correctly.
Similarly, claimants who previously received UC and then make a new claim lose all access to their previous online journal because it is overwritten by a new one.
This is a problem for claimants who want to challenge a termination of their award and for those looking to resolve outstanding issues on the original award.
Claimants in this position can only access their previous online journal information by querying the information available via the UC helpline, applying for a subject access request or waiting for the information to be reproduced in the paperwork prepared for a challenge of the decision at Tribunal.
Design of the UC system is opaque:
CPAG sees the same mistakes in UC decision making and administration time and again but the lack of transparency on its design makes it difficult or impossible to interrogate whether errors are automated or clerical, and if clerical, the reasons why those aspects of the system have not been automated.
To make UC more transparent at an operational level, the DWP must:
Make information on the system’s design available.
Explain how officials interact with the digital systems and publish its guidance for officials, and information on how it is applied.
At a system-wide level, the DWP must make the source code for UC publicly available, as is required by the Government Digital Service’s service standards.
The Department has committed to publishing the code for personal independence payment and pension credit but not UC.
Child Poverty Action Group’s head of policy and research Sophie Howes said:
“At its best, digitised universal credit makes it easier to claim. But at worst, it rides roughshod over rule-of-law principles and leaves claimants without enough money to live on. Try telling a mother of three that the computer says No to support for all of her children just because there’s a bureaucratic delay in the paperwork for one child. The DWP must take the wraps off UC so that its workings are transparent. There are low-cost changes the department can make to ensure digitalisation improves UC so that it’s fair, in line with regulations and capable of getting correct payments to all claimants. Almost half of children will be in households claiming UC when it’s fully rolled out, so getting it right is imperative.”
This is all pretty damning and shows what we have known for years. The Universal Credit system isn’t fit for purpose and certainly doesn’t run on a system of help and compassion.
This causes many claimants to drop their claims for UC because of its complexity which causes distress.
Thanks to Child Poverty Action Group for undertaking this research and publishing this report. It’s hard hitting but vital reading
An ever increasing number of children are now living in poverty as a result of the cost of living crisis, increasing energy costs, result of parents losing their jobs and DWP (Department of Work and Pensions) issues such as benefit sanctions.
As we are seeing this huge increase of people living in poverty little has been said about the effects of hunger upon children and their learning abilities.
It sounds like commonsense that childhood learning and hunger are both interconnected issues that are faced by many children in the UK. If you’re hungry it’s very hard to concentrate on anything else.
Recent studies have shown that hunger and malnourishment can have a severe impact on a child’s mental and physical development, which can ultimately affect their academic performance and life opportunities.
According to the End Child Poverty coalition, 4.2 million children in the UK are living in poverty, 2.4 million of whom are living in severe poverty. Poverty is a significant driver of hunger and food insecurity, with many families struggling to afford and find healthy and nutritious food.
Research by the Trussell Trust food bank network found that over 1.2 million emergency food supplies were given to children in the UK in 2020. This highlights the extent of hunger faced by children in the country and the need for action from the government.
The effects of hunger and malnutrition on a child’s learning can be very profound. Children who experience hunger often find it difficult to concentrate and focus, affecting their memory and cognitive abilities.
This can also lead to behavioral issues, affecting their interactions with others and their overall development.
Moreover, poor nutrition can significantly affect a child’s physical development, leading to a lack of energy, poor growth, and an increased likelihood of illness.
One recent study found that children who experienced hunger were more likely to have lower academic performance and to struggle with basic literacy and numeracy. Children who eat more healthily and more varied diets also have better cognitive abilities, and in many cases have better academic outcomes.
There is evidence, however, that basic interventions can help address these issues. Breakfast clubs at schools have been shown to improve pupils’ behaviour and academic performance. This is particularly noticeable with children that come from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Whilst charities and organizations are also working to provide food parcels and other forms of support to families and children who are struggling with hunger, the food offered to them are usually of low nutritional standards but they do quench their hunger.
Childhood hunger and malnutrition in the UK continues to have a huge impact on a child’s learning and development.
Whilst there are interventions such as breakfast clubs and food banks that can help alleviate these problems, and it is vitally important for policymakers, schools, and charities to work together to ensure that all children have access to the resources they need to thrive.
Sadly at the time of writing the government is very reluctant to help at all. Instead the cost of living crisis and rising energy costs are continuing to increase plunging more children and their families further into poverty.
Is the government doing this purposely? It certainly makes me suspect this. The health and wellbeing of working class children appears to be unimportant to them and the less they learn the better for them.
DWP (Department of Work and Pensions) minister Tom Pursglove admitted that claimants are waiting over half an hour on average for PIP and DLA helpline calls to be answered.
He also claimed that he is going to recruit extra staff to cope with the volume of calls on the helplines but gave absolutely no indication of how many are being employed and for how long they’ll be employed.
Nor has he confirmed if the extra staff he plans to employ are qualified to do so.
At the time of writing the average wait for a PIP enquiry to be answered is 37 minutes and for DLA enquiries it is 33.5 minutes.
However it is imperative that Tom Pursglove reveals the amount of callers that don’t get an answer at all because their calls are disconnected.
Earlier this year the DWP revealed that in March almost 90% of half a million callers to the Future Pensions Centre were faced with being call-blocked because they couldn’t cope with the rising call demand.
Implementing Call-blocking results in calls not being allowed to go on the call waiting queue because the queue is too long and they get cut off.
This is also happening to callers contacting the PIP helpline as reported to Benefits And Work by claimants trying to contact the said helpline.
We cannot ignore the fact that the claimants trying to contact these helplines are all vulnerable and are in great need of getting their enquiries answered.
The question also needs to be answered as to how many of these vulnerable people have given up trying to contact the departments. This could in some circumstances result in their payments being stopped leaving them more vulnerable than they already were. .
There’s no excuse for the DWP’s lax attitude towards the whole situation.
It’s clear that they don’t care about how this can impact upon the claimants lives and it is totally unacceptable.
Back in the day I remember when the UK had a fully functioning NHS dentistry system that many in the UK were entitled to be given treatment by an NHS dentist.
People are still entitled to this and it is dependent on certain benefits, pregnant women, women who had recently given birth and some pensioners had access to the NHS free service.
As a whole the system worked well and appointments to see a dentist and to get treatment was fairly easy. If you had a toothache or dental abscess it was also easy to get a dentist to treat you before complications set in.
Roll forward to 2023 it’s near impossible to find a dentist that’s willing to take on NHS patients and a person’s condition isn’t taken into account.
Many NHS dentistry patients have also unknowingly found themselves taken off their dentists patient lists. This happened to me, if you get a toothache like I get often or a dental abscess it’s tough and difficult to cope with.
Finding an NHS dentist is near impossible though.
Most doctors and a&es won’t treat people with dental problems and trying to find a local dentistry hospital can be near impossible.
It’s become very clear that the government is actively destroying the few NHS dentistry services that are still available. They clearly don’t care about the public’s health.
Basically as stated by George Monbiot the state of our mouths truly does reflect the state of the nation.
Many people find themselves without an NHS dentist because their circumstances change such as house moves and relationship changes and dentists take NHS patients off their lists.
I live in an area of the UK where there are hardly any, if any at all dentists accepting adult NHS patients. I was lucky enough to find a dentist to treat my teenage daughter who needs extensive surgery in the near future. My fear is that she’ll age out before any date for the operation becomes available. She was one of the lucky ones.
Currently at the time of writing 80% of practices in the UK are no longer taking on new child NHS patients, and about 90% are refusing new adult patients.
Sounds horrific doesn’t it and it gets worse. Some dentists do offer a waiting list for NHS appointments but they’re years long and of no use for urgent appointments.
Often accessing emergency services requires finding a dentistry hospital, being able to travel a long distance and being able to afford to do so.
I don’t know anyone can afford to pay for private treatment. Those that have in the past can’t afford to do so again.
.
However the reasons why dentists are refusing to treat NHS patients are pretty simple and it’s easy to understand why.
When dentists treat patients on the NHS, they actually lose money, because the government funding package doesn’t cover their costs of doing so.
Since 2006, dentists have worked for the NHS under contracts that are shockingly designed to fail NHS dentists.
Dentists undertaking NHS work are paid in units of dental activity’ which is shortened to( UDA). This method of payment doesn’t take into account the cost of treatment which bears no relation to the costs of treatment. Under this system treating a patient earns a dentist three points regardless of the length and expense of each procedure.
Under this contract each and every NHS dentist also has to meet annual UDA targets
Absolutely no regard is given to dentistry prevention work which is in great need.
Dentists are paid at the UDA rate no matter how skilled they are and their experience.
Add the above to the government cuts that are hitting hard.
In reality NHS dentists as well as other health systems and the NHS as a whole requires approximately 4% a year to keep up with it.
However NHS dentist services receive 1.2%. Add this up that they are requiring 4% to function but funding for NHS services have been cut by 4% a year.
It’s also important to take into account rising costs of energy, , energy, wages and materials which accounts to about 11% a year.
Dentists working for the NHS simply cannot stay in business unless they use their income from private practice to subsidise their public practice.
Parliament’s health and social committee stated in 2008 “it is extraordinary that the public health department did not pilot or test the UDA payment system before it was introduced.”
Rather typical isn’t it.
Since then successive governments have apparently tried to change an already broken system but haven’t made any improvements.
In 2022, the government produced a so-called reformed contract in England. This was apparently supposed to allow better access to NHS dental services. This however hasn’t prevented the decline of NHS dentistry because they’re still going to be losing money when treating NHS patients.
Rishi Sunak recently told parliament that there are now more NHS dentists across the UK with more funding, making sure people can get the treatment they need.
He’s got the nerve to even suggest this. The number of NHS dentists is decreasing daily. If you need a dentist you’ve got virtually no chance of seeing one.
As a result of this most if not all dental practices treating NHS patients have found themselves unable to reach NHS contract targets. . If dentists deliver fewer than 96% of UDAs that they are contracted, they find themselves in a position similar to being fined by the government.
It look’s as if they will take a record hit. The dentists undertaking NHS work were forced to pay back as much as £400m from a total English dentist budget of some £3bn.
This is effectively destroying remaining NHS dentistry, obviously they can’t afford to work at a loss and on top of having to pay back the government.
It’s hard to believe that as the UK is in one of richest nations that people can’t access dentistry services.
It’s horrific that people are so desperate to get rid of their pain they’re resorting to pulling their own teeth out, buying temporary fillings and suffering in pain.
People are also accidentally overdosing on painkillers which is very dangerous both to health and life. We must also take into account the adverse health effects of dental abscess and suchlike which at worse can cause death.
Cruelty is what the conservative government does best though, most of their systems are designed to punish working class people for their very existence. How dare they ask for dental treatment.
Something needs to change and soon before more people suffer and also unfortunately die.
Will this happen though? No not a chance and it’s pointless trying to appeal to them for sympathy and help because the government clearly don’t care.
This is Mike’s comment about his quest in finding an NHS dentist.
There are two dentists where I live but, after extracting all of my own teeth and wanted dentures, I could only find one NHS dentist within 20 miles that accepted new patients. York and Leeds are both within 20 miles! Reason I wasn’t previously registered was returning from Australia where I didn’t need to register.
Thanks for telling me about your experience Mike and for your continued support of my blog also sharing it. I appreciate it.
Whilst most of us are struggling to keep warm this winter because of the ever increasing energy costs Braverman has claimed £25K for energy bills for a house that she doesn’t use.
Scandalous isn’t it, completely brazen such is their attitude towards the cost of living and energy cost scandals.
Meanwhile, the energy bills support scheme which saw households getting around £66 taken off their bills each month has come to an end in March 2023.
This will undoubtedly result in vulnerable people unable to turn their heating on which is still very important because it’s still cold.
As stated in the above photo people have died or become ill from hypothermia and hypothermia related illnesses and will continue to do so.
Not everyone can travel to organised warm places, they’re not a solution because their homes will still be cold upon returning.
Thousands are dependent upon food banks to be able to eat a meal, many are unable to cook meals because of high energy costs.
Mortality rates are almost definitely going to increase and the government yet again want to force disabled people into work.
God help us, there’s no levels the government won’t go to to punish the working class for simply existing.
They’re monsters of the worst kind with not an ounce of dignity, compassion and honesty between them all.
Like all monsters they’ll continue to do so until they’re defeated and we must do this.
Everyone needs to remember their cruelty at the upcoming local elections. Not voting will enable them to continue as they are doing now.
It’s been predicted that the Tories could lose up to 1,000 seats. Let’s hope this happens..
Check on your friends and neighbours to see if they’re ok because at the moment we have only each other to rely on.
According to statistics released by the DWP (Department of Work and Pensions) the rate of universal credit recipients hit an all-time high of 6.86% in October 2022.
This total decreased slightly to 6.51% in November 2022.
The statistics released by the DWP show that sanctions have risen by 4.16 percentage points in the last 12 months.
Sanctions given to universal credit recipients can be and are not excluding other reasons for failure to attend or participate in a mandatory interview, failure or inability to complete their online journal or being seen as not to be looking for work enough in their time allotted to do so.
Over the last year over half a million claimants were sanctioned which includes a total of 98.4% of all sanctions given for not attending an in-face or telephone interview.
Needless to say most universal credit recipients do not purposely miss important interviews and there is usually a good reason for doing so which are often not taken into consideration by the DWP.
At a time when most people are struggling because of the current cost of living and energy cost crisis the DWP continues to financially punish the most vulnerable.
It’s abhorrent that the DWP continues to do this, they extend a person’s punishment to such an extent that they can’t see a way out.
It needs to stop before even more people die as a result of the DWPs actions and decision making.
The charity the Dogs Trust has reported a huge rise in the number of people trying to rehome their pets.
The RSPCA have also seen that animal shelters and rehoming organisations have also seen a massive rise in animal rehoming saying that they are ‘drowning’ in animals as the cost of living and energy crisis continues to hit hard.
According to figures given by the Dogs Trust the number of pet owners attempting to rehome their dogs had risen hugely last year and continues to do so. Many shelters are now experiencing long waiting lists. Also seen is an increase in setting up pet food banks to help prevent people from having to re-home their pets.
Between 1 January 2022 and 31 October 2022 the Dogs Trust received 42,000 inquiries from dog owners about rehoming which is a rise of almost 50% on the same period in 2021. Sadly these figures show no sign of decreasing.
Amanda Sands, centre manager at Dogs Trust Leeds, said she had never seen such high demand in three decades of working at the shelter.
There’s people bringing in their dogs that at one time would’ve said: ‘I will never give my dog up.’ And they meant it,” she said. “And now they’re faced with the situation where they have no choice. To have to say goodbye to your friend, it’s unbearable. It’s unthinkable.”
The Association of Dogs and Cats Homes (ADCH), in conjunction with ITV’s Tonight programme, surveyed more than 60 animal shelters across the country about how they were responding to the cost of living crisis.
The figures showed 92% of shelters were seeing more people wanting to hand over a dog compared with pre-pandemic levels, and 88% were seeing more people wanting to hand over cats.
More than half were planning on opening pet food banks to respond to the crisis, and 30% were thinking about providing low-cost or free veterinary care.
Sadly these numbers are increasing as people can no longer afford to buy food for their pets. They are also finding it near impossible to pay for any vet bills that may occur.
The RSPCA also reported in 2022 a 24% increase in pets being rehomed as shelters report that they can’t keep up with rehoming requests.
Also back in 2022 75 families were using a food bank at the Blue Cross Animal Hospital in Grimsby every week.
Mark had been using the food bank for several months to help pay for specialist dog food for his staffordshire bull terrier Roxy. This has helped him save £60 a month on food. “She’s part of the family. We’d sooner go without ourselves then give Roxy up,” he told the Tonight programme.
Meanwhile a YouGov and Dogs Trust poll that was made in conjunction with the Tonight programme found that 48% of dog owners were saying they now are now finding it more difficult to provide their pets everything that they need because of the cost of living crisis.
Understandably vet bills topped the list of concerns which was followed by the rising cost of dog food and pet insurance costs.
Roll forward to 2023 I can only imagine that these figures are rising. It’s difficult to find a foodbank that provides dog and cat food although there are some that do.
No one wants to rehome their pets, it’s a decision that is usually made when they’ve exhausted all other means of providing the essentials for their pets.
As the cost of living and energy cost crisis continues there’s no doubt that the most vulnerable will undoubtedly pay the highest price.
The poor side of life 