A 95-year-old man and a nurse are among the growing numbers of people who have had to turn to foodbanks for support in recent weeks amid a cost of living crisis.
As UK inflation reached a 40-year high, North East foodbanks told of the heartbreaking hardship staff and volunteers witness every day as people struggle to feed their families and heat their homes.
One community support group said they recently had to launch an emergency fundraiser to help a woman as there was no money left in their support fund. While Hebburn Helps Community Foodbank said that on Monday they had already handed out food parcels to 17 local households before lunchtime.
Angie Comerford, who co-runs Hebburn Helps, said: "People are at breaking point right now. It's not fair and I can't see it getting any better.
"There's just more and more stories coming though. People are coming through the door in dire straits and it's so, so sad."
Today it was announced that UK inflation, the rate at which prices are rising, jumped to 9% in the 12 months to April, up from 7% in March, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) - the fastest rate for 40 years.
The UK is facing an increasingly worrying cost of living crisis, as fuel, energy and food prices surge higher due to the pandemic and Ukraine war. However, wages are failing to keep pace and foodbanks and community mutual aid groups are already seeing the impact.
Angie said: "It's more people who are working that we're seeing at the minute, not necessarily those who are on benefits. It's people who are working and their gas and electric and fuel has gone up. We've had someone who has had to sell their car. They have two kids and both parents are working but they've had to sell their car.
"What else can you cut if you've got rid of your car and cut down on gas and electric?"
She added: "We had a nurse come in last week. She was in between jobs and had to stop working while she waited to start in another role.
"She had to make a Universal Credit claim but she won't get any money until next month. These are the people we were clapping for on a Thursday night during the lockdown and they're the ones who are now walking through a foodbank door.
"Then on Monday I had a 95-year-old who was celebrating his birthday come into the foodbank. I went and got him a little cake and took it over to him because I had his address and I thought I can't have a 95-year-old man sitting alone and not having a cake on his birthday."
On the same day Home Office Minister Rachel Maclean faced backlash from the public for suggesting that some people who are struggling to cope with cost of living pressures could work more hours or get a better paid job. She said the Government wanted people to be able to "protect themselves better" from rising costs in the long term.
Ms Maclean said she was not "suggesting for one moment" that such an option would work for everyone. She added: "It may be right for some people, they may be able to access additional hours, but, of course, it is not going to work for people who are already in three jobs.
"That's why we need to have the other measures, such as all the help we are putting into schools, the help with the local authorities ... and that's where we are going to target help to where it is most needed."
Angie said: "How are you supposed to work more hours when you're already at maximum work level anyway? How are you supposed to get a higher paid job if you aren't qualified in getting that higher paid job?
"You also had [Conservative MP Lee Anderson] last week who suggested you could live off 30p a day by doing batch cooking. It feels like they are making a mockery of people.
"It's not people's fault that they're in this position, it's the powers that be who are controlling the puppet strings and it's got to start with them. There's nothing that the little people can do anymore apart from keep on suffering."
Elgan John, who helped to set up Arthur's Hill and Elswick Mutual Aid group to help people struggling during the first coronavirus lockdown, said the number of people needing support from the group has increased in 2022. The group supports people by providing food parcels, as well as a solidarity fund of £30pp per month to help households pay bills.
Elgan explained that due to demand there is currently a waiting list to access the financial aid. However, during a recent bank holiday weekend they had to emergency fundraise to help a lady who had been left with no gas or electricity and no food as she was unable to pay her bills.
He said: "She didn't have money for gas and electricity so her electricity went off and there wasn't any money in the solidarity fund so we had to do a mini fundraiser. In the meantime her freezer defrosted and she had to chuck away her food so we had to get her an emergency food parcel to get her through the bank holiday weekend."
Elgan added: "People don't want to be in a position where they have to receive things. There's enough for everyone and we should be ensuring that everyone has a good life and has enough money to be able to afford to eat without constantly worrying about having food in the fridge or electricity - there's no need for it."
He added: "It's interesting that they sometimes do these social experiments - there was one done in the 70s and another in the 90s - where they put these wealthy people on poverty wages and benefits.
"These wealthy people with all their social capital and they struggle very much to live on these poverty wages. Politicians who argue for lower benefits or the removal of benefits in total aren't able to afford to live on it, so it's strange that they continue to suggest these things."
Today the Prime Minister and Chancellor Rishi Sunak faced intense pressure to act in response to the Consumer Prices Index inflation. Mr Sunak warned that he could not "protect people completely" from the cost-of-living squeeze, but the Prime Minister promised to "look at all the measures that we need" to get people "through to the other side" of the inflation spike.
Mr Sunak said: "Countries around the world are dealing with rising inflation. Today's inflation numbers are driven by the energy price cap rise in April, which in turn is driven by higher global energy prices.
"We cannot protect people completely from these global challenges but are providing significant support where we can, and stand ready to take further action."
At Prime Minister’s Questions Mr Johnson was repeatedly pressed on the issue by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.
Mr Johnson said the Government was “not, in principle, in favour of higher taxation” but promised a “sensible approach, governed by the impact on investment and jobs” – ministers have argued that a windfall tax would deter investment by the oil and gas giants.
“Of course we will look at all the measures that we need to take to get people through to the other side, but the only reason we can do that is because we took the tough decisions that were necessary during the pandemic,” he said.
The Prime Minister added: "We always knew that there would be a short-term cost in weaning ourselves off Putin’s hydrocarbons and in sanctioning the Russian economy.
"Everybody in this House voted for those sanctions. We knew that it would be tough but… giving in, not sticking the course, would ultimately be the far greater economic risk."
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