Is the cost of living crisis over? I think that it is no longer a crisis, as that implies something short term and accidental. It is more of a manmade disease than a crisis. I think what we are experiencing now are the very intentional consequences of policy decisions which reward the rich and further penalise the poor. Coupled with the deliberate hostility towards anyone who has to rely on social security and the punishingly low rates of Universal Credit and disability benefits. I think in the UK today we are experiencing Capitalism at its most extreme as part of the Conservative's fascist regime. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer and success is determined solely by how much wealth can be accrued, regardless of the cost to the health, wellbeing, happiness or future of people or our planet.

I had an appointment with my work coach recently, and she did a 'better-off' at work calculation for me, for a job I was interested in.

Once the calculations were done, it turned out that I would be only £200 a month better off!

This is after paying for childcare, medication, travel, clothes, food, etc.

This made me think to myself - are some of us really better off when we work, when those of us on Universal credit stand to lose so much when we do?

The process for getting a job needed to make easy for everyone. Government can help employer by providing on the job training rather than out of the job training. The working hours needed to make flexible for working parents and tailored to part time workers like student or single parents. In this living cost crisis, if employer can provide their worker a lunch with/without government help then it will be great to saving people's pocket. The working benefits such as good pension, paternity/maternity leave, child care facility, sick pay etc will attract more people into working force and retain them for the long time.

Thank you for your question. What I personally think is guiding and training people according to the skills, education and interests is so important. People should not be forced to work in warehouses when they can be trained to work at a better place.

Nervous. For me to get back into work, I probably need some adaptation so I can be allowed when I can't stand for too long. So ideally I'd need to go back into sort of retail, check out assistant, something along them lines. Although I was a shop manager on the weekends, which I'd like to not quite management going, but supervisor more than just the bottom of the chain. I'd like to go back in a bit higher up. But for me, changes or adaptations would be because of my osteoarthritis in my knees. I would need a supportive chair, obviously one that's a bit comfortable. And also I've got bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome. So unfortunately I would need some possible adaptations with a keyboard or something. If I was on a keyboard or at tills or whatever, the new electronic ones. If I was to be leaning in my wrist on a table or something, I would need one of them little round gel things to take the pressure off my wrist. I'm also neuro divergent. I'm ADHD with lots of traits of undiagnosed autism. So now and again, if I get too overwhelmed, I would need somewhere just to have a bit of space and quiet time. Also, because of my ADHD, I can say the wrong things at the wrong moment. So I would need an understanding team or crew around me that would just understand my quirkiness and not take offense if I accidentally said the wrong thing.

Thank you for the big question of the week. I think for me personally, and probably for a lot of parents in my position, we really need support, probably for lone parents, parents with children with SEN. And I think that what I would like to see is some strategic work on Scaffolding, really, families who have slightly older children. So I feel that there's a lot of concentration on younger children and childcare, but then we have a big gap for children who are slightly more independent but still need some support. So that could be SEN children in particular. In my case, I'd also like to see more free training programs put together by the DWP, and I think training programs that allow parents like myself who are unscaffolded. I don't have a lot of child support. I'd like to see some more online working and more online roles and more fluidity, really, in the roles that are being made available. So lots of training towards so technical training towards jobs that can be carried out online, because it's a game changer for me since I've been able to work during COVID online. It's changed everything. So lots more support for children who are sort of a little bit more independent, and also support for people like myself who have some technical ability and who are available to work online, developing those skills and giving us access to jobs that are able to do that. Thank you.

I was working for a small charity previously, but they wanted me to work too many hours which would have significantly impacted the carers allowance I receive. I had to stop working as the workload became too heavy to juggle the children and a job which demanded late nights and a non-stop workload. I now feel anxious about returning to work as I feel I will be forced to take “any job” as opposed to one which will actually suit my family dynamic.

I've recently been awarded Limited Capacity to Work (LCW) after waiting 2 years for the decision, only to find that there is still a lot of conditionality on being awarded it.

I also receive PIP.

I initially thought that once you were awarded these benefits, that you wouldn't have to look for work as intensively (because of your health restrictions) and that you couldn't be sanctioned- but I was wrong.

I sharp learned that my assumptions were wrong when I recently had a face-to-face interview with a work coach who questioned me intensively about what I was doing to find work, because I hadn't reached the threshold of 35 job search that week.

She was about to sanction me, and when I told her that I was in receipt of PIP as well, she said it didn't make the slightest difference, and did not stop me from looking for work.

A manager intervened and said I was pardoned for that appointment for being none the wiser about the system, and the confusion many claimants find themselves in, but she then referred me to my Work Commitments, stating that I still had to carry out work searches.

The irony of the whole situation is that even when you do your work searches, look for a job, secure an interview - employers then make it hard for you to get the actual job by being so picky with their selection processes.

Furthermore, the very fact that certain aspects of UC are still unclear to many claimants adds to your mental health causing stress and anxiety, especially when your told your about to be penalised for something that you didn't even know about in the first instance - as was the case with me.

Plans to scrap [insert pension related thing here] scrapped due to backlash,

I've seen five such articles in the last week. So backlash over largely conservative voters means the government will backtrack but not stuff that effects largely labour or lib dem voters like the recent budget that punishes the more vulnerable with additional vulnerability.

I laid awake in bed last night, cold sweat panic of being forced to look for work again, these last two and half months of being on LCWRA had given me a false sense of security that the government would finally let me focus on healing, focusing on being well enough to be able to work. I look forward to being able to work again one day, I don't know when yet, could be a few years cos treatment doesn't happen overnight and is a process. But if I have too look for work or forced into work while seeking treatment it will jeopardise my healing process with additional stress. There is literally no job I can do safely with my mental health as it currently in, I'd pose a health and safety hazard, be a risk to myself my colleagues and potential clients/customers. No one will employ me and no special measures, besides having a constant supervisor assigned to insuring I'm safe and well every few minutes will enable me to work as things currently stand. I'm not even able to safely care for my children until after treatment due to how my mental health poses a risk to their development and welfare. I get a lot of support from social services and a lot of access to my children cos social see me as sick and vulnerable and deserving of help, but while I'm deemed too ill to care for my kids the gov thinks me and people like me can work. I wish I could, I'd love to role model that to my kids, and one day I will. But I can't run before I can walk. Its mental. I dread the utter desperation if hunger and cold, after my childhood trauma such retriggering makes self harm and suicidal thoughts stronger. I'm fine, safe, right now but if things keep on getting worse and more unsafe (like it's mental that people like me aren't safe in our own country, not safe from hunger or cold or starvation, like this is Britain FFS, how can government do this to its own people!), If things keep getting worse then how will my mental health ever get better if I can't just focus on healing for a short time. In the factor of my life, a few years out if the workforce to heal is small compared to lifetime out of work cos no one will employ me. Sometimes it feels like the government is just trying to kill off as many poor and vunerable persons that it can, cheapest way to lower their unemployment rates if we're dying. And loads of evidence that mental illness lowers life expectancy, as does stress and hunger and cold.

As for sanctions, they're disgusting, Government sanctioned torture. We've clearly never moved on from Victorian punish the poor mentality and it shows.

Hello

The cost of living crisis has impacted a lot on my mental health because every day I am worried - how I can provide the food for my family? What I can do extra to earn more money? I am feeling frustrated, sad, and angry with my self because I consider I don't do it enough to support my family but the cost is extremely high, every day I tried to do anything to found more ways.

Struggling to decide what to do with work at the moment. Come April 1st, because of the rise in minimum wage and my lack of pay rise again this year, I will be on just 30p an hour more than minimum wage. I have a lot of responsibilities and stress at work and whilst I really love my job and the flexibility it gives, if my employer can’t give me a substantial pay rise to start April 1st I feel I’m going to have to leave for the sake of my mental health. Knowing I could work the same hours in a very minimally stressed job that ends when my work days ends just adds to the pressure of my job and I don’t want the stress and pressure without financial compensation.

Hi, we are struggling with eating healthily on a budget as we both work long hours in the Education sector & commute between two UK countries due to our professional expertise at work, as well as caring for our young son (who has ALNs). It is a real struggle with the cost of food & travel / petrol now, as although we both have professional jobs we earn 36k between us and the vast majority goes on bills, food & clothing our son. We often have to grab something on the move or eat carb heavy meals for the energy. I have found healthy foods very expensive for a long time now, but definitely more expensive again the last 3 months or so (apart from selling off cheap veg after Christmas). I also find the quality / longevity of fruit & salad to be poor a lot lately and that some products are hard to come by at mo (eg iceberg lettuce); as well as eggs.