44% of working families cut back on essential food and clothing to pay for their home, new figures from Shelter show
Posted 14 Sep 2016
In the last year, 44% of working families in England – equivalent to 3.7 million families - cut back on buying essential food and clothing in a bid to help pay their rent or mortgage.
The Shelter and YouGov research reveals the tough choices that working parents are making to keep a roof over their heads, with one in eleven going to the extreme of skipping meals, and one in five parents putting off buying their children new clothes or shoes to help cover their housing costs.
The charity’s findings shine a spotlight on the enormous pressure that housing costs are putting on family budgets. The research found that over half of working parents are already struggling to meet their rent or mortgage payments, leaving them vulnerable to any small change in income.
Sadly, these worrying figures come as little surprise when recent government statistics show that the average household in England spends 29% of their monthly income on housing costs, rising to a staggering 43% for private renters.
Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter, said: “These figures are an acute reminder of the tough choices that working families are having to make to keep a roof over their children’s heads.
With an uncertain economic outlook and millions of families already struggling to make ends meet, Shelter is urging the new government to do all it can to protect and improve the welfare safety net that helps families who fall on hard times to stay in their home.
“With millions of working families struggling and a period of economic uncertainty ahead, now is the time for the new government to both protect and improve our welfare safety net so that it can be there to support families who fall on hard times.”
Case study: Michelle and Kevin live with their children in a small privately rented home in Cambridge. Kevin works for a cleaning company and Michelle is studying for a job in the criminal justice system. Even though Kevin works full-time and has a good job, every month is still a struggle.
Michelle said: “Before Kevin joined his current company he was self-employed and at one point we very nearly lost our home when our income dropped and we fell behind on the rent. I tried to hide it as much as possible from younger children at the time but they still knew something was wrong. I hated living like that.
“Even though my husband has a new job now and works as many hours as he can, it’s constantly hand to mouth. We’ve cut back on everything to help pay the rent – including food. When the children are at school the heating isn’t on at all, and we only ever buy clothes when we absolutely have to because the little ones have grown out of something.”
Anyone who is worried about losing their home can contact Shelter for free, expert advice. Visit www.shelter.org.uk/advice or call the Shelter helpline on 0808 800 4444.
Notes to editors:
All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 8,381 adults, of which, 1,581 were working parents with children aged 18 or under. Fieldwork was undertaken between 19th – 22nd July 2016. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).
44% of working parents surveyed said that they had cut back on food and/ or clothes in order to pay their rent or mortgage. 9% of working parents said they had skipped meals, and 19% had cut back on buying their children new clothes and/or shoes to pay their housing costs in the last 12 months. 54% of working parents said that they struggled to pay their rent or mortgage from time to time, constantly or that they were falling behind with payments.
The estimates of number of families affected have been calculated by Shelter. These estimates are based on the number of families with dependent children where at least one adult works. This is from the Census 2011 published by the Office of National Statistics. This indicates that there are 8,424,182 working families in England. The proportion of working families from the YouGov sample is taken as a percentage of the ONS number.
Government data shows that the average household in England spends 29% of its monthly income on housing costs. The average private renting household spends 43% of its monthly income on housing costs. This is from the English housing Survey 2013/14. Available here.