Price rises on supermarket food, and rail fares are adding to financial pressures for many Salford families.
Food items such as butter, cheese, milk, coffee, eggs and cereal are seeing an increase, and train tickets are about to rise by 4.6 per cent.
The cost-of-living crisis continues to affect day-to-day life and people will have no choice but to look for a place of support during the crisis.
Sarah Whitehead, from Salford Poverty Truth Commission, is the director of community pride and collaborates with the community by providing support to those experiencing poverty.
She said: “We spend a lot of time listening to each other and sharing our experiences of what people in Salford are going through.”
Residents confiding in each other allows these issues to be passed onto decision makers to implement changes and ultimately provide Salford people with the tools to live heathier and happier lives.
One severe issue Salford is currently facing is families who cannot afford gas, electricity and food.
Sarah said: “We know that poverty was already an issue in solving the ever-increasing cost of living and it is just applying more and more pressure and pushing more and more people into poverty that some of them have never had that experience before.”
The project can support people by pointing them towards referrals and community networks.
The project has a prime focus in empowering others and encouraging people to fight for their rights, such as appealing when benefits are sanctioned.
Sarah herself knows the struggles with being a single mum suffering with mental health issues all too well. Helping others by providing a listening ear and having the power to make a change fills her with pride.
She added: “For me, it’s really personal, and I’m really grateful to be in a position where people look at me and recognise themselves in me.”
There are many services available to seek advice on the cost-of-living issues.
Salford Credit Union provides advice on finance such as negotiating payment holidays, freezing interest on loans, reducing payments to a more comfortable and affordable level, fast tracking appointments to citizen advice, arranging benefit checks and refinancing other debts on to one lower cost loan.
For savers it can advise on
- returning savings to members on the same day
- offering loans at an affordable rate
- offering ‘Christmas Club’ accounts
- referring people to Salford Food Bank.
A Salford Credit union spokesperson said: “We encourage saving and it is important. Many of our members are saving for the first time in their lives.
“We regularly receive feedback telling us that members like the saving aspect of what we do and that they are grateful that we have helped them to save.”
Mark continued: “We are not licensed to give advice; however, we do make suggestions that may help and point people where they can go for advice.”
Homelessness is another problem across Salford, with lots of adults and children living in temporary accommodation such as hotels.
Sarah said: “For me, I’d say that housing is a crisis, and a big part of that for me is gentrification, the over development of disadvantaged areas that don’t already have amenities for the people that live there.”
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