I live month to month, fighting to get out of debt – this is the reality of life on the breadline

The thing is, we aren’t in dire straits, as many others are, but we are on the breadline and struggling to afford the cost of living. We have one child and parents with good pensions and property who can help us. We can’t afford to save money though, except for some nominal amounts so our son can have a birthday party and Christmas gifts. We live month to month, fighting all the time to get out of debt.

We’ve had some really difficult experiences to cope with – notice of redundancy three times due to lack of funding for public service employers, problems with my son’s nursery care and struggling to get a diagnosis for additional needs which took 19 months. It’s a huge postcode lottery.

We struggle and have to think about every payment and how we will afford extras. These are the kinds of things that people not on the breadline, who can save for a rainy day, take for granted like meals out, treats, multiple clubs and lessons for their children, gym memberships, holidays. It causes us sleepless nights and we worry about our son, his education and his future.

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We pay rent as we cannot afford to pay off our debts and start properly saving for a mortgage on our own house for a long time. Our son isn’t living in abject poverty that many children across the UK are. Even so, we can’t afford things that many children have access to. If the cost of living is worrying for us, imagine what it must be like for single parents, those who have few qualifications, those with more than one or two children, and those who earn the £7,500 household income threshold for free school meals.

Free school meals, which were made universal for primary school children in Wales, have made a huge difference for our family in the last year and a half. It saves us around £50 per month. This is money we can use instead for petrol and public transport for our work commute, grocery shopping and heating.

It also means our son can still eat a decent meal at lunchtime. What if that was his only hot meal all day (as it is for many children in the UK) and we had to somehow find that money out of thin air? Why don’t all children in state education across the four nations have access to free school meals, so they are fed?

I believe families like ours and those worse off need ready access to free school meals, free or subsidised childcare and wraparound care at school. We also need ready access to benefits. There should be much better information and support to claim, and the forms should be easy to fill in and available in every format. People need easy access to food banks.

We know these are not ideal, since they too are dehumanising and more of a sticking-plaster than a long-term solution through welfare support. While they remain the only option for many, they should at least be readily available and easily accessible. Every town, city and village should have access to warm spaces and free second-hand clothes banks, especially for school uniforms and outfits for job interviews. People should be able to access free NHS dentistry easily in their town.

Commuting to work is so expensive. What is wrong with heavily-subsidised transport and fuel costs so that people can actually get to work? I have had commutes of up to four hours a day in the past, just so I can continue using my qualifications after redundancy and serve the public.

We need accessible healthcare with no waiting lists for mental health or additional learning needs assessments. Every single child and young person who is diagnosed with a learning needs or a disability or medical condition should be able to access proper funding and support at school.

And carers should be helped to pay bills, heat their homes, and run required medical machinery. There should be just fewer hoops to jump through with everything because it’s exhausting and dehumanising.

Izzy is a participant in the Changing Realities project, which explores the experiences of low-income families across the UK amid the cost of living crisis.

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