Its cold and the cost of energy is very high especially where I live as the energy is controlled and managed by a small and unknown company and the property provider has made it impossible to switch to a different energy providers. Residents are crying out for help as the cost of heating is extremely high.

What a start to the new year

Gas boiler isn't working. No hot water or heating. The call handler from my local Council said it's not an emergency. It's snowing.

It's getting harder each year to find the energy for festive cheer, since lockdown nothing seems the same, nothing feels right in the world anymore. People are still lovely but everyday feels like a battle for survival, food costs being so high, homelessness and income insecurity being so bad, especially for disabled folk and families with children, just feels like the world, or rather the UK under this gov and the last one, is hostile towards us these days. Not bothering with a big Christmas dinner this year, too expensive not just for the different ingredients but also for the cost of gas and electric needed to cook said meal. 2-4hours in the oven is about £5-10 on the meter these days. Might do a small cheese board, If I can find cheap cheese options, or atleast a buffet if cheaper Xmas staples like pigs in blankets and parsnips, with chicken popcorn and whatever other small party food options are available the day I'm able to go shopping for Xmas lunch. I tried booking an online delivery but they're all booked up this close to Xmas which means I'll have to go shopping in person which with my disabilities will take ages, being very stressful and painful, and probably cost more cos I'll be prioritising getting it over with rather than prioritising cost cutting. I don't need to worry on the gift front, I factor in gifts throughout the year in my monthly budgeting so already got every wrapped and ready last month, just the food and heating that's so high this month. I'm dreading the new year's Jan and Feb chills, my heating bill is already extortionately high, blows the mind.

Surely now is the time to cap MPs pay for a few years and also to cap the amount they can claim in expenses for their second homes including the amount they can spend on decorating / furnishing these homes not to mention the amount they claim for food and other expenses they claim for while they are away from their constituencies. This money could then be used in order to support the poorest in society that are cold and hungry in their homes through no fault of their own.

I also understand that there are young children who are British citizens whose parents are unable to claim child benefit due to their own immigration status ! This should not be the case in the UK or anywhere else in the world where we should all be treated fairly with respect to have the best possible chance of a future without poverty and hunger.

I'm getting sick of people asking the question "are you ready for Christmas?". No tree is up, the house is cold and damp, we have laundry piling up and not enough time to take loads up to the launderette for drying (no space for a dryer). We had a family emergency at the weekend which is still somewhat on going on top of a month long emotionally-based school avoidance episode for my child with additional needs which has massively compounded the quite how sharp the thing end of the wedge is for us, and because I am the only who isn't elderly or working full time in the family because of my own Disability I have been left with having to co-ordinate the mess. People with more money can just throw money at these things and have it all fixed.

A disastrous announcement from the government that will put increased pressure on families claiming benefits that are already struggling to survive.

I had some positive vibes from the New Labour Government after they set up the Child Poverty Task Force, but in this morning's news they have announced that three key benefits will be frozen this year putting more families into more hardship and less chance of being able to find suitable housing, even homelessness.

Local housing allowance…

Benefit Cap…

Capital limits…

These benefits have been frozen for 2025 at a time when families with children are already facing tough decisions on household spending including the next rise in energy prices in January 2025.

On top of this there is the overlooked or ignored fact that people claiming some Legacy benefits have not seen a rise in benefit payment for several years, meaning in real terms we actually face a reduction in our spending power year after year.

This government promised to make sure that Child poverty would end, also that food banks would become less of a necessity for millions of families struggling to feed their children.

When are the announcements coming that will start to see an end to the difficulties families are facing ?.

Good evening everyone today the weather was so good but I had a challenge with the transport I couldn't enter a bus today due to shortage of bus fare so I have to walk to where I can buy my son's milk, I think if we asylum seekers can be entitled to bus ticket that will help so much.

Incredibly disappointed in the SNP budget announcement about the 2 child cap, not because I support the cap, but because the announcement is a lie, and this is something which will not actually happen. Any mitigation scheme which requires benefit recipients to actively make a claim, and prove their eligibility, will miss out the poorest and most desperate. The DWP hold the information about which people are affected, and the FM has made it clear they have not agreed to share it. And they won't. So this is a wholly empty promise. I'm disgusted tbh.

There's no back up for unexpected costs. We are on week 3 of school anxiety which has meant I have had try and entertain a child with additional needs and educate them whilst also awaiting news about a potential cancer for myself. Costs for heating, eating, buying books, electric and such have been ridiculous. There's been no help.

Is it my understanding of the benefit system or the system it's self ? I have struggled for ten years in order to feed and clothe my daughter. She is now eighteen years old and finished her A levels, finishing her education at the end of September. I have this morning received a letter from my local council, "You have received this letter because our records indicate that you are a parent/carer with a child(ren) who are attending a nursery or school in Kingston borough. You do not appear to have a free school meal award for your child(ren), and we think you may be entitled to one." what the hell is going on for the whole of this time I have been receiving ESA as a single person with no other financial help or support. This has all contributed to mental and physical health problems, also my daughter's education.

I have not been able to go food shopping because I haven’t had the money and getting my ESA fortnightly by the time it goes back in my bank. I’m usually £150 overdrawn so most of my next payment gets eaten up by the vicious cycle that I’m stuck in unfortunately

Yesterday I was having an ASD burnout and could not get to the supermarket so I went to the local fish and chip shop which I haven’t been to in a long long time and I was absolutely shocked to see that a piece of cod now cost £10.20. I just think how the hell are people getting away with charging this much why is the government not addressing the cost of food? We should all be able to buy food if the government addressed these big greedy companies that are profiting from our circumstances

we could afford to buy food, I have had to go without meals the last two nights. I’ve eaten a bowl of cereal and fed my kids some scraps out of the cupboard. I really thought when I went to Parliament in June with the Trussell Trust and spoke to MPs that they would take this on board and realise the seriousness of the current situation that we are all facing but no we are now in November and I attended another meeting at Parliament explaining that 1.4 million food parcels have been given out in the last six months they just don’t get it or you hear well we need to get these sick people back to work and I said to them how do you get a sick person back to work when they’re too sick to go to work and then you could see their brain cogs wiring away! It’s absolutely shocking that we’ve got these people running our country. I thought conservatives were bad but labour just really don’t get it at all.

My partner is a local authority worker and will be getting back pay as part of the pay award for the pay dispute for the last financial year. But not a single organisation, the union, the CAB, his payroll department or even scope have been able to advise on exactly how it will affect our universal credit. We're also being reviewed which is terrifying. I feel like I have no financial security, no financial privacy, and there's no definitive answers. Just before Christmas too.