As MPs receive a £2k pay rise, Brits are asking for help to pay for food and bills
Across the country, people are sharing emotional appeals on fundraising pages, asking for help to survive the cost of living crisis.
Ex-NHS workers and people unable to work due to disability are among those who have had to resort to support from others via GoFundMe.
The cost of living is rising on almost daily basis. Gas and electricity surged by 54% on April 1 – the biggest rise in energy costs in living memory. But on the same day, MPs in the House of Commons saw their salaries increase by over £2,000 to £84,144, because their work “dramatically” increased in the last year, an independent watchdog said.
And in a double whammy from the Tory party, National Insurance increased to 13.5% this week – seeing workers and employers pay 1.25% more tax than before. While inflation is at its highest level in 30 years.
With nowhere else to turn, Brits are resorting to fundraising to survive.
Thelma Spalding, 54, used to work for the NHS, but she was assaulted at work, and now relies on carers and a walking stick. Her bills have shot up from £44 to £149 per month, and she can only afford to heat up one room. She wears two pairs of leggings, a pair of trousers, a vest, a T-shirt and a dress to bed.
David Babsky, who watched a recent BBC’s news report about Thelma, sent a cheque to help cover her heating bill. “She was almost in tears,” he said.
He has since created a fundraiser to help the ex-NHS worker cover her energy bills, which has so far raised over £1,000.
Speaking in a video he made, David said: “Thelma is freezing. She lies in bed freezing because she can’t afford to heat her home. She needs our help.”
When David visited her, he said she was “immensely grateful” for people’s donations.
“I feel like I’m drowning”
Marilyn Grey set up a fundraiser at the start of the year, simply to help her “survive January”.
“Honestly, I feel so embarrassed at having to do this,” she wrote, “but things really have gotten bad and I just have no where to turn now.”
Describing her debt as a result of her bills, Marilyn, who has multiple disabilities and is unable to work, said: “I feel like I’m drowning.”
Writing on the page, she said: “If you live in the UK, you’ll know about the crazy increase in energy prices at the moment. Well, they’ve caught me bad, landing me with hundreds of pounds of energy bills.
“I just want to be able to stay somewhat healthy and keep the heating on for my cats,” she added.
“My sister’s oil was stolen”
Some stories indicate how bad the situation is – not just for one person, but for the whole community.
Ann Spiers in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, set up a fundraiser after her sister’s heating oil was stolen from her tank.
Ann said her sister, Catherine, was “already struggling and fretting” about how she was going to manage. “I would appreciate whatever you can donate to help. We are forever grateful,” she said on the page.
So far, Ann has raised £50 of her £300 goal.
Despite being in such dire straits, those posting pleas typically make a point of not expecting donations because they understand that so many others are in a similar situation.
Around 1.3 million Brits will be pushed into absolute poverty by this crisis, a thinktank warned last week, and over half of the Brits surveyed by the charity campaign group CALM are worried about their finances right now.
“We are all in the same boat,” Ann remarked on her page. “Everyone is having a hard time,” Marilyn said, “please don’t feel obligated”.
£10k raised for emergency cost of living appeal
Many individual pleas struggle to meet their targets, but separate funds set up by organisations hope to resolve this.
James Anderson, a hero plumber from Lancashire, has been helping low income households by fixing their boilers for free, paying off heating bills and providing food boxes through his community initiative, Disabled and Elderly Plumbing and Heating Emergency Repair (DEPHER).
In the past week alone, the organisation has provided multiple emergency plumbing and heating services. Those it has helped include an 86-year-old whose heating and hot water had been cut off for over a year after he struggled to pay his gas bill. The organisation has also been providing weekly shops for families – giving them money for electricity where needed.
The organisation was set up in 2017, but an emergency appeal set up with GoFundMe will see half of the funds raised go to DEPHER and the other half go to the fundraising pages of individuals struggling with the rising cost of living. It has so far raised £10,000.
Speaking in a video update last week, Anderson said setting up DEPHER was “one of the best ideas I’ve ever had in my whole life”.
When it comes to charities, organisations, and members of the public, the effort to keep others afloat is certainly there. But with energy prices expected to rise yet again in just six months time, it is going to take a lot more to lift millions of people out of this crisis.
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