Working but poor: millions in work and in poverty

Sometimes you don't want to come home because you can't turn up the heat. I

work

5 days a week and have yet to use a community store. Millions of people in the UK are in paid employment but still struggling to make ends meet. It doesn't make sense that we have to go through all this. We are pennies. We count pennies every day. Politicians repeatedly tell voters that the best way out of trouble is to get a job, but for a growing number of people it is simply not enough. like Melanie, when you have to choose between getting new shoes and your daughter getting new shoes, you buy some super glue for sticky shoes and I do it, and it shouldn't have to be like that, it really shouldn't, no, no .

You don't have to look like you have nothing to have nothing. I don't do weekly shopping. I can shop daily to find bargains and I can go from one supermarket to another and we are saving pennies. We count the pennies every day once we have purchased all the essentials for the month. How much do you have left without anything? Nothing. We are not living a life. I think we're just plotting for the last 14 years. Melanie has been

work

ing at a local school as a learning support assistant. I've always had at least one or two jobs, what works for each call center, seasonal job, local football team, cleaning, you've done it all, yes, being there, you have the shirt, you do it for your kids, my three children have seen it.

Mom does the best we can, we have a lot of sick employees due to overwork and you've gotten so tired that you're gone so much that you have nothing left when you get home and wonder if it's worth it for me to get up and go to work. In the morning, knowing that I could, I could work half the hours I wanted and pay the rent, pay the council tax, but it's the end of Pride day, where Melanie lives in Yorkshire, almost one in four people live in

poverty

in the North East, the situation is even worse and living in

poverty

almost always means struggling to put food on the table as food bank use reaches record levels.

Community stores like this one on the South Side are popping up across the country to fill the gap between rising costs and stagnant wages, so I'll be getting some eggs, some bananas and potatoes. My little one loves eggs so it's worth it if you get them and can come here once a week. It costs £4. I only work part time, however I am above the threshold to get them. kind of help from the government, I can't be with the food bank, so even though I'm struggling, I'm a single parent, I can't get help from anywhere, so this is a good way to do it.

When you leave school you never think well this is going to be me using people's help using community shops using food banks you think you'll be able to provide and some weeks I can't there's no way I would ever buy this in a supermarket um just because it's too expensive. I work, my wife also works, but recently our children just arrived in the country, four of them, so they eat a lot. What we earn as income is probably not enough. minimum wage, so it doesn't cover the bills, the rent and everything we have to pay, so basically that's why I have to do it, there's no point in us having to go through all this, we're going to work flat out.

In the UK, record numbers of people are finding work, but many of those jobs are insecure and, although inflation rates are slowly improving, wages and benefits in real terms are not keeping up, so yes, this week is part time and it is good to have free time. it's turning off but you still worry you know we're home all day now budgeting your gas your electricity you know what you're going to eat this week uh cheese and butter please I used to cook every day and now I worry about making a meal every day days, so when you make it you cook twice as much so that the next day it is just there to heat up and you know what?

I don't want this for my kids when they come out and be their own little adults and get their own lives out there I don't want that and I don't want them to see me struggling what would you like to see happen? I would like to see what our us is like so that she has a better quality of life. No? I don't want a flashy car. I don't want fancy sneakers. I just want to be able to wake up one morning and think that I can turn on the heat today and that's all we need to go to work. get out and be able to come home and enjoy what you've earned.

I went out to enjoy. The number of

working

adults living in poverty has increased 56% in 25 years, back when my father worked, my mother stayed home and you had everything and now two people can work and you still can't even work. you can afford to put a meal on the table in one night we need to be heard we need to be seen and believed not only are we are people who either want or want and I think those who have it don't realize what is to run out a government spokesperson said that we are providing 104 billion in cost of living support with an average value of 3, 00,700 per household, including investing more than 2 billion in the household support fund to help to those most in need, as well as increasing pensions and benefits.

Since 2010, there are 1.7 million fewer people living in poverty and we know that work is the best way out of poverty. We will go even further by raising the national living wage, cutting National Insurance, curbing inflation and investing billions through our back toor plan to break down barriers to work so even more people can gain financial security at long term.