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Many UK mothers are having to choose between heating and eating

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Susan Newcombe
WVoN co-editor

Mothers of financially stretched families in the UK are going without meals to feed their recession-hit families.

The growing impact of rising unemployment and increasing household bills as the UK recession continues into its fourth year is forcing one in five mothers to miss meals so they have enough food for their children.

A survey this month by Mumsnet.com of 2000 of its members found that a quarter of families are living on credit cards, five per cent take payday loans and one in 100 have turned to loan sharks to stay afloat.

Over 70 per cent of families are basically teetering on the ‘edge’ of surviving, it found.

With woman making up two thirds of the 48,000 rise in unemployment in the three months to December and many working part-time in a public sector seeing huge job losses, they’re often the ones left to deal with the consequences of the economic downturn.

Cherie Tinenti, 33, was awarded a community crime-fighters’ award by Gordon Brown in 2010 for her tireless work to improve standards on her estate in Loughborough, one of the four per cent most deprived in the country.

Cherie set up a community flat from where she recently started to provide free tea and toast every morning and one hot meal a week for cash-strapped residents, many of whom are single mothers on benefits.

She says she is increasingly hearing about family breakdown as mothers are forced to make choices between basic necessities such as food and heating to plug the shortfall from falling incomes and increasing household bills.

“One mother told me she and her partner can only have their son from a previous marriage stay one week in two as this is the only time they can afford to heat their home,” she said.

Both Cherie and her partner work but have been hit by a cut in working hours and rising prices as well as paying off debts they took on before the downturn. Whereas she used to buy fresh food for her children she now has to cut back and bulk buy from the economy range.

“We stock up on cheap bread and tins of beans for our boys to fill up on so they can keep warm as we turn down the heating,” she said.

Julie Budd, 45, also lives on the estate, having escaped an abusive relationship. She lives on £184 a fortnight incapacity benefit from which she has to pay all her bills including some rent.

Her soaring fuel costs are £47 a fortnight as her heating system is old and inefficient but she tries her best to eat properly.

She took a course in food hygiene and computing and resents being labelled workshy saying she wants to work.

“I also have to pay to travel to Leicester to stay with my daughter if I want to see my grandchild as I can’t afford to heat my house for her,” said Julie who spent 14 months in a women’s refuge before she was rehoused.

She wanted to buy her family presents at Christmas and took out a small loan, but the extortionate interest rates now absorb any money left on top of repayments for a crisis loan when she left the refuge.

“People around here are staying warm from drinking, cider’s cheaper than heating,” she added

Judith Spence runs a food parcel scheme at a hostel for the homeless. Tales abound of one woman walking three miles to pick up the donated food and three miles back.

“We give out 35 parcels twice a week,” said Ms Spence. “Mostly it goes to mothers who are trying to feed families.  Most have children who are school age so at least they get a meal there but they have to fit work around them.”

She said heating is usually the first thing sacrificed for food.

“It’s a vicious circle with rents going up as well as utility bills and also paying for children’s clothing,” she added.

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