Prices in the UK are simply exploding – especially those for food and energy.
The price rise reached an average of 9 percent in April, and this dooms a large number of Britons to deprivation and real misery, says “Deutsche Welle”.
More and more Britons are being forced to limit their spending to the extreme. Emma French is one of them. She told the BBC how the rise in food prices has affected her family.
“We are forced to go to social dining rooms. We cannot afford to shop in a supermarket, it is already a luxury for us,” says French. “My husband neither eats breakfast nor lunch, he only eats dinner, but we don’t sit at the table together. Everything we have must be precisely distributed so that the children can get the food they need.”
“Should I eat or feed the children?”
Social kitchens say more and more people in need are not buying raw meat or vegetables at all because gas and electricity prices have risen so much that they cannot afford to cook.
Consumer prices in the UK reached record highs in April, unprecedented since 1982. Goods and services cost an average of 9% more than a year ago, according to Statistics London. This increases the social misery in the country.
The annual rise in food prices is about six percent, and the growth in energy for April alone is 54 percent. For an average household, this means an additional cost of £ 700 a year, and another increase is expected in the autumn.
According to economists, by the end of the year, the rise in the UK may exceed the limit of 10%. This would mean that nearly 10 million households would probably not be able to pay their electricity bills, and 250,000 would fall into extreme poverty.
Martin Lewis, the creator of an austerity advice website, is pushing for more support from the state. “I survived the financial crisis, as well as the pandemic. The situation we are facing at the moment is the worst,” he said. “People used to tell me that when setting their priorities, they chose whether to go to a hairdresser or a bar. Now the choice is: should I eat or feed my children? The situation is intolerable,” he said.
The government is committed to economic growth and new jobs
Recently, Prime Minister Boris Johnson pointed out in parliament that the government has already unloaded the tax burden on citizens. In addition, the government plans to reduce electricity bills by 200 pounds in the fall, but consumers will have to return this amount later.
The opposition is demanding that oil companies be taxed higher and that citizens receive emergency financial aid. However, Prime Minister Johnson prefers to rely on economic growth: “No matter how great our compassion and ingenuity, we cannot solve the problem by spending money alone,” he said. “We have to deal with the situation by creating hundreds of thousands of new and high-paying jobs for highly qualified people in the country.”
“Our purses are already empty”
But for the British, who are in dire straits, these promises do not help. Gerard Barwick does not know how he will cope with the next price increase. “We have reduced the heating, we use less electricity, but in October the costs will increase by another 1,000 pounds. Our purses are already empty anyway,” he said.
Martin Lewis admits that he no longer knows what savings advice to give people. The government will again discuss the problem of growing financial pressure on citizens, but the possibility of introducing an emergency budget is currently rejected.
