A working mum who puts in 50 hours per week said she still has to turn to food banks amid soaring food prices and bills.
The 36-year-old civil servant, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of losing her job, has to rely on kind donations from strangers to feed her family despite working long weeks.
Her monthly wages do not stretch any further than her rent, council tax and energy bills which she claims are "through the roof."
“I work full time and I’m a mum of three," she told Lancs Live.
"You never think that you will get to the state where you have to go to a food bank in this day and age, but I have no choice at all.
“I have got a relatively good job in the civil service, but we still can’t afford to buy decent meals.
“My rent is ridiculous, at £700 a month, then you have the heating bills, and the council tax. That’s my monthly wage.”
The mum, from Wesham, Lancs, said her husband has been unable to work after he was diagnosed with pancreatitis and the family also have to pay for somebody to help with the school run.
Adding to the family's struggle, she caught Covid twice and ended up in hospital after suffering a blood clot and a bout of pneumonia in October 2020.
She added: “We all tested positive on January 3. My husband has pancreatitis and is on morphine.
"Because I work, I have to have someone to take the children to school and pick them up as well, so I pay a neighbour to do that.”
The woman said she enjoys working but is scared of rocketing energy bills and told how she has been forced to limit the heating at home and ask her children to wear their dressing gowns instead.
She said: “I love working. It’s good for my sanity and it gives me a purpose.
"But I have a pre-payment meter for the energy bills with a weekly top up because I’m too scared to do it other ways. This way, I can manage it.
“Our heating bills are through the roof. I’m always saying to the kids 'put your dressing gowns on' and 'put your slippers on'.”
The mum said it would make a huge difference if she were housed in a local authority property but that she had never been offered one despite applying.
“I have always had to rent privately and never been offered a local authority property," she said.
"The difference that would make would be massive.”
As a result, the family fear getting a ‘note through the door’ from their landlord.
“We are always constantly thinking 'what if we get notice through the door saying they have decided to sell up?'
"A family like us could do with a council house and more affordable housing. I always apply but I’m always down the bottom of the list."
The parent praised volunteers at her local food bank Fylde Food Community Hub who brought food parcels for her children.
"Diane was amazing... It wasn't just basic things, she was asking us what we wanted. Some of the food banks give you out of date food, but not the Fylde one.”
She went on to blast "scandalously" high food prices that were adding to the family's financial woes and described the overall situation as "impossible."
“It’s a massive, big picture. There are no cheap houses, landlords are profiting from it, then there are food prices as well," she added.
Her decision to speak out comes amid warnings of a cost of living crisis last week, with 2.5 million families unable to pay bills including mortgages, rent and energy.
Research by consumer watchdog Which? showed the number of people who have missed at least one payment has shot up by almost 50 per cent since December.
One in seven households on less than £21,000 were the most affected with rising food and fuel bills being the main reasons, the study found.
National Insurance payments are also set to rise in April, to fund social care in England and help the NHS recover after the pandemic.
A DWP spokesperson said: “We know this has been a challenging time, which is why we’re providing support worth around £12bn this financial year and next to help households with the cost of living, including putting an average of £1,000 more per year into the pockets of working families on Universal Credit, increasing the minimum wage by 6.6 per cent and targeted help with fuel bills.
“Our £500m Household Support Fund is also giving more help to the most vulnerable with essential costs this winter, and councils have been given an extra £65m to support low income households with rent arrears.”
The spokesperson said that 1.9 million working families on Universal Credit should gain an average of approximately £1000 per annum thanks to the changes to the taper rate and work allowance.
They said they provided a pay rise to two million of the UK’s lowest-paid through a higher minimum wage, adding that vulnerable households across the country would be able to access a new £500m support fund to help them with essentials over the coming months as the country continued its recovery from the pandemic.
They also highlighted that the Government provide a range of support to low-income, and vulnerable households including Warm Home Discount, providing eligible households with a one-off £140 discount on their energy bill for winter 2021 to 2022.
Plans are underway to extend this until 2026, increase it to £150, and help an extra 780,000 pensioners and low-income families with their energy bills, meaning that a total of 2.7 million would get support, with the vast majority receiving the money back automatically.
