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Charity to give 5,000 of Britain's poorest families donations for the first time to help with one-off costs
Save the Children will begin handing out cash grants to struggling parents in the UK today, signalling that families here are in "crisis" and need emergency support of the sort usually reserved for its aid programmes in the developing world.
Better known for its work helping children in war-torn or famine-struck countries, Save the Children has never before distributed money to British families. Its decision reflects concern that rising unemployment, rising fuel and food prices are pushing many to the brink of disaster.
"We didn't think that we could stand by and do nothing. We're very worried about what's happening," Collette Marshall, director of UK programmes, said. The charity's work in the UK is usually aimed at bringing about systemic change, rather than offering short-term cash lifelines, but campaigners believe that the country's poorest families have been hit harder by this recession than previous economic downturns. "This is how we would respond to an emergency overseas," Marshall said.
"Now families in poverty face the problem that not only is their income woefully inadequate, but prices for essentials are dramatically increasing," the charity said. The situation is worsened by the large debts families have burdened themselves with during a period of easy credit. "There is a much bigger cliff for people to fall off because of the high levels of debt they have."
Official figures show that the cost of food rose by 11.3% in the year to February, and within that the cost of vegetables has risen by 18.6%. Supermarket's own brand food prices have gone up particularly sharply, which has an especially sharp effect on the poor. Save the Children's research shows that 35% of parents have cut back on food expenditure, and of the poorest parents, 48% have reduced the amount they are spending on food.
"We are seeing an element of malnutrition. When we work overseas, we deal with two forms – severe malnutrition and stunting, which happens when the mother hasn't got proper nutrition when she's pregnant and when the children don't get proper food in the first two years of their lives, which causes damage from which they never recover. We're seeing this stunting here too now. The lack of nutrition in pregnancy and the number of underweight babies is as high as in some developing countries," Marshall said.
"We know that parents are buying fill-up food rather than nutritious fruit and vegetables, because they're so expensive."
The cash grants are aimed at paying for one-off expenses like school uniforms, a cot, a school trip or a carpet. "We can't help with food costs because we wouldn't be able to cope with the demand, but we are trying to help with one-off costs that could help take the pressure off the family. We've been shocked by the stark nature of the requests we've seen coming in," Marshall said.
The charity warned that the recession will have a particularly hard impact on children. "Children in families that are struggling financially are more likely to experience stress, more likely to suffer ill health and less likely to do well at school," it warns.
Save the Children will distribute the money in conjunction with Family Action, a charity which has recently found itself unable to cope with the rising number of demands for financial support, at a time when fewer people were donating money to charity. They have had to increase their criteria in order to manage demand, and are now able to help only families classified as being in severe poverty.
The charity aims to help 5,000 of the poorest families, starting out initially with a donation of £150,000 to help around 900. "We know that we will only be scratching the surface of the crisis. But if we can help make a significant difference to the lives of just a few families with children by paying for a school trip, a new carpet or a cot then this is a worthwhile initiative," Marshall said.
Beyond that, she said the government needed to address the problem. "The government needs to take action in the April 09 budget to make sure that benefits or low salaries are adequate to bring up children. It needs to invest £3bn to meet its 2010 target to halve child poverty," the charity said."In a different way we are in a dire situation ourselves"
Jasmine, 24, took out a new loan in January so she could replace her broken washing machine. The online company went into liquidation before it delivered the machine, leaving her with a new debt of £400, on top of existing credit card loans and overdraft penalties of over £7,000, clocked up over the past year since her husband walked out on her and her two daughters, aged four and seven. She hopes to receive £400 from the charity to pay for a new washing machine.
She said it felt peculiar to be receiving money from a charity, more often associated with helping starving refugees abroad. "We are struggling. It doesn't feel comparable to the way children and families are suffering in Africa, but in a different way we are in a dire situation ourselves at the moment," she said.
Partly because fuel prices have risen and partly because her husband is no longer providing financial support, Jasmine has had to cut her fortnightly shopping budget from £150 to about £60; she buys less meat for the children and relies on cheaper ingredients. They have started eating a lot of cheese on toast. "The children don't like the food we're eating, but it's disheartening to see how quickly they have adapted."
Worry about money and her ability to cope as a single parent contributed to her decision to drop out of a social work degree in the autumn. Without the washing machine she has found the cost of going to a launderette has pushed her further into debt, and the charity which was giving her debt relief advice dropped her when they discovered she had taken out a new loan to buy a replacement machine.
"My whole life feels like it has come to a standstill. I can't see how I will ever be able to get out of this situation," she said. "We've been trying to cut down our costs, but prices are rising; you can't cut down enough."
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