At the moment, I am finding things difficult. I am in debt with different people. I am really struggling to get by. Citizens advice is so over used, I can’t get through to them for help.

Hi everyone

Busying day today, my baby not doing okay this day.

Shopping has gone up again! Never by just a few pence it’s a good 15p to up to 50p increase on items. It’s ridiculous! I do understand things may go up in price but what on earth justifies it to go up by what I would see I big rise. Things that cost £1 are now £1.25. For larger families this is just destroying people. I’m trying to do meal plans, do correct portion sizes and saving food from previous meals just to try save some cost. I wonder if the cost will ever come down?

I’ve just been told that come September my son may no longer get his SEN taxis and that frightens me. The schools he has applied for are so far away. It’s terrible that these decisions are built on the fact he is too academically capable for a SEN unit but yet they fail to acknowledge he is socially and emotionally immature. It’s so sad. I don’t know how I will afford to get him to school as he also won’t be eligible for a bus pass. In NI it’s not means tested but miles tested and my poor daughter now 16 falls 0.2 miles out of that bracket and never got bus passes. That’s over £44 a month on bus passes I pay just so she gets to school.

It’s been a strange February. So much is happening, application forms to be submitted for my youngest to enter into secondary school. Whilst this is an exciting time it is also scary. My son did so well in his test that he is destined for grammar school but with that comes extra costs. Grammar school uniforms are almost double the cost of high school uniforms. The only way around this would be for me not to send him to a grammar school but he has the potential and the academic ability. I hate having to think about things like this. He deserves the same opportunity as others. There should be more government help towards uniforms to lessen the pressure on low income parents. As usual I will make as many sacrifices as I can to make this work. I will even live off beans and toast if I have to.

Nursery have changed how they do their invoices. They're following the guidance and breaking the costs down so it's clearer but....

It's those sodding consumables charges. They're not optional, they're not covered by universal credit and they're an extra on top of the funded hours. I know why they charge them.

Before it wasn't separated out so I could just submit the total to universal credit and get 85% back. But now, as they're supposed to, they have separated out the day rate from the "integrated care package" and that's not covered by universal credit. Now I can only claim back 66% of the actual cost of nursery. I need to worm to afford to live. I even increased my hours at the beginning of the year. I wish I hadn't bothered though as I am working more and earning less at the moment.

It's hard to stay cheerful or optimistic about the future when the news is full of click bait about benefit reforms, hating on disabled folk and hatred to the poor. Feels like things are slipping backwards not forwards and doesn't feel as safe as it used to to go out n about. I'm more likely to be refused disability aid in public, like drivers lowering buses or disability doors working, and it feels targeted. I know it's not targeted at me specifically but at people like me, anyone with invisible disabilities especially, the general public isn't consciously turning against us but if the gov won't support us why should they feel that have too, why prioritise fixing a door or lowing a bus if the gov doesn't think disabilities like mine are real anyway, they're just being lazy anyway. Turn us against each other so we don't turn against the gov, typical political strategy, it vexes me that with all the access to knowledge and information how easily the masses are manipulated and controlled still.

Xin chào mọi người, cuộc sống của tôi vẫn vậy, không khá lên chút nào như nghèo tiền bạc không có đủ kinh phí để nuôi con. Chi phí sinh hoạt và tiền đi xe bus cũng rất cao làm cho cuộc sống thêm khổ sở khiến tôi bị áp lực và stress rất nhiều. Tôi là mẹ đơn thân, một mình nuôi con rất vất vả và khó khăn đối với tôi.



Hello everyone. My life is still the same, not getting better at all like being poor and not having enough money to raise my children. Living costs and bus fares are also very high, making life more miserable, causing me a lot of pressure and stress. I am a single mother, raising my children alone. It is very hard and difficult for me.

Good morning.

Not a good day. My child is not doing well.

Half term is a nightmare this year. I’ve had an 11th birthday before Christmas, then Christmas, and then a 16th birthday and now half-term. It’s so expensive. Please HELP.

Feeling stuck, struggling to move house. Looking at around nine years on social housing. The LHA rate frozen this year and rents increasing means I am stuck where I am, without access to an early nursery place for my child in this area due to no spaces, meaning I can’t return to work. Feeling down.

Has anyone else noticed the increasing cost of living in London?

It's very bad as lots of things have become unaffordable. It's almost like the poor are forced out of London completely, as they can barely afford the basics.