The rising cost of living is one of the biggest issues facing families in Medway and grappling with this is one of the main priorities for the new Labour administration at Medway Council.
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00:00 Hello, and welcome to this Kent Tonight special with me, Sanjana Idnani. The rising cost of
00:27 living is one of the biggest issues facing families in Medway, and grappling with this
00:32 is one of the main priorities for the new Labour administration at Medway Council. But
00:37 are families getting the support they need? First up, we'll be hearing from families
00:42 in Medway that have been left most vulnerable to rising prices. Hayley Clark reports.
00:48 It's early morning here at New Horizons Children's Academy in Chatham, where children are enjoying
00:53 breakfast club. Hot food is on offer, with beans, bagels and pancakes topping their list
00:59 of favourites. And it also gives them a good start to the day.
01:03 Does it help you in your learning to have a good breakfast?
01:06 Yeah, it makes me feel warm. When your parents need to go to work early,
01:10 you can eat, instead of you have to rush just to school and eat nothing.
01:14 And what does it feel like if you are in a rush and you don't have time to have breakfast?
01:19 Does that impact your concentration and things?
01:21 Yeah, because my stomach's hurting during that.
01:24 The school helps families who need it with uniforms, breakfast club spaces, budgeting
01:30 tips and charity referrals. The headteacher tells us child poverty is on the rise in Medway.
01:35 It's certainly becoming more apparent that more families are struggling. I think when
01:42 we look at inflationary rises, we are certainly getting approached by families more regularly now.
01:48 I mean, we get a lot of parents in tears, not knowing what to do. I did a recent referral
01:53 for someone whose fridge and cooker broke in the same week and they just didn't have
01:57 the money to do anything about it and they were really panicking. And within a week,
02:02 they had all the new appliances that they needed.
02:04 Last year in the UK, children living in a family where someone is disabled had a poverty
02:10 rate of 36% after housing costs, compared with 25% for children living in families where
02:16 no one is disabled. This is an all too familiar issue at Club Awesome in Strood. The club
02:22 provides a fun, safe space for autistic children to play.
02:26 Here, I met mum of four, Sophie, though she told me she wasn't sure if she could come
02:32 tonight due to money worries.
02:34 We have to write down exactly what we've got outgoing, whether it's £3 that we can afford
02:40 to come, we can take it somewhere else, like from the grocery shop or from one of the bills.
02:46 This is a place where her son is free to be himself. She says there used to be clubs like
02:52 this every day of the week, but now affordable family clubs are few and far between in the
02:56 community.
02:57 We struggle a lot. Medway Council have not helped at all.
03:01 Sophie's not alone. The club's leader estimates that 90% of the children here come from low
03:08 income families, and many parents have had to give up work to care for them.
03:12 We give away quite a lot of free food at the end of each session. They don't ask for it,
03:16 but we make sure that I always have extras.
03:19 And what do you think that means for people?
03:21 It means they get to do simple things like eat.
03:24 We're all chipping in together, doing what actually other people in authority should
03:29 do, but actually if we had more support from them, at local government or central government,
03:35 then actually we'd be able to do an awful lot more. I know we would be able to.
03:39 Medway Council told us, its household support fund, Medway Go and free school meal vouchers
03:45 provide support for its families, among other schemes. It also offers a range of free activities
03:51 in the community and works with organisations who provide food support.
03:55 A government spokesperson said, "Unpaid carers play a vital role and since 2010 it has increased
04:01 carers allowance by almost £1,200 a year." It added, "Carers in low-income families may
04:07 also be eligible for additional financial support payments worth up to £900, which
04:12 are being paid to more than 8 million eligible households."
04:15 But with prices continuing to rise, it's a worrying time for Medway's families.
04:21 Hayley Clark for KNTV.
04:23 Next, as people feel the squeeze, some are having to make difficult choices about which
04:29 products they will have to do without. One Medway charity, however, is working to change that.
04:34 Chelsea Coates went to meet them.
04:36 They're everyday products many of us take for granted. But for those in Medway struggling
04:42 with the cost of living crisis, hygiene has become a luxury.
04:46 We hear stories of families sharing a toothbrush because one's not an option or using,
04:52 washing up liquids. It's a one-stop shop so they're using that to shampoo, shower gel
04:57 and to wash the dishes because it's just a cheaper way of making the money go further.
05:01 Emma Thomas started the Medway Hygiene Bank in 2019 after hearing about children at a
05:07 local school having to wear dirty uniforms. Her team of volunteers collects donated products
05:13 and distributes them locally.
05:15 We distribute on average over 1,000 kilograms a month. We're supporting over 2,000 people
05:22 in the area monthly and that equates to about 800 households. We have definitely seen a
05:27 rise in people coming to us. Normal working families, individuals who were getting by
05:33 and had money left over at the end of the month and were coping, could afford these
05:38 basic products. Mortgage rates, interest rates have gone up, energy prices have gone up,
05:43 so those that were just getting by can no longer get by.
05:47 Last year, almost 80% of Medway children living in absolute poverty had at least one working
05:53 caregiver. The End Child Poverty Coalition also found that the south-east of England
05:58 had the highest proportion of children in poverty who were in working families. To tackle
06:03 this, Emma is calling for the Hygiene Bank to receive more funding.
06:07 We need local leaders, the local council and the government to kind of take notice that
06:12 this is a serious issue and it's an increasing issue. It's a worry that next year we could
06:18 not be here if we don't get funding.
06:20 Medway Council says it offers a lottery scheme to support voluntary organisations and Councillor
06:26 Theresa Murray says she is committed to giving the Hygiene Bank more funding in the future.
06:31 I would do as much as I could to work with them to get sustainable grant funding to keep
06:37 this going as well as always thinking of moving to a time when we don't need to have hygiene
06:43 banks or food banks.
06:44 Despite struggling to secure funding, Emma says that her and her team will remain committed
06:50 to making sure that rather than just getting by, families in Medway never have to do without.
06:56 To know that we've helped another young person who hasn't got to suffer and hasn't got to
07:03 struggle, it just makes all the job worthwhile. But we do hear regularly that the impact of
07:08 our work and for us as volunteers, that's what strives us to continue doing what we do.
07:13 Chelsea Coates for KMTV
07:16 Joining me now is Labour Councillor Lauren Edwards who is responsible for social and
07:23 economic regeneration and Councillor Adrian Gullvin who is the leader of the Conservative
07:28 group at Medway Council. Thanks both for coming in.
07:31 Lauren, if we start with you then. Emma there, she talks about hygiene poverty being a hidden
07:37 crisis that's not talked about enough and she feels it needs to be taken seriously by
07:41 the Council. What is the Council doing to make sure that every family in Medway can
07:46 get access to those essential hygiene products?
07:48 So, we're a big supporter of the Medway Hygiene Bank. I think that we obviously, a lot of
07:54 food banks are very well known, there's a need there. But as Emma has pointed out in
07:59 your package, it's also personal hygiene products that people are needing to be able
08:06 to just get through everyday life and unfortunately with inflation at the moment and the cost
08:11 of living crisis, it is very difficult. So, one of the things that we have introduced
08:16 as an administration within our first 100 days is a cost of living crisis response plan
08:21 and that is set out in sort of a one stop shop, all of the ways that people can access
08:26 support, financial and otherwise, from the Council. But that financial support is very
08:31 key and there's a fund called the Household Support Fund which we have made very simple
08:35 for people to put in an application and be assessed for things like help with energy
08:40 bills, help with food and everyday essentials and things like school uniforms as well.
08:45 Sure, I mean Adrienne if we just bring you in there, you're a member of the Children
08:49 and Young Persons Scrutiny Committee. Is this been an issue that's come up there in terms
08:53 of pushing for young people to get that hygiene access?
08:57 No, there hasn't been an issue that's come up while I've been on Children's but certainly
09:01 a little while back when I was a school governor, it most certainly was an issue because I was
09:08 a school governor for a school at Weedswood which has a lot of people on low incomes in
09:15 the area. Fortunately, we found a company that made hygiene products that was willing
09:21 to give them to the school for nothing. I suppose it's product placement isn't it? So
09:27 there are ways of getting around it if you contact the company because it is an issue
09:32 we've got to get right and I certainly wouldn't want that sort of thing taken out of the school's
09:38 education budget. So I think we need to look outside of the box there and certainly what
09:43 that school did I think was the right thing and it was one of the governors, one of my
09:47 fellow governors that did the ringing around and the school had plenty of the products
09:53 which I thought was great.
09:55 If we could just bring Lauren in again, another big issue that's facing Medway Council at
09:59 the moment as they're grappling with issues of hygiene poverty and wider as well is that
10:04 17 million budget shortfall. For groups that Emma are running and voluntary sector groups,
10:10 could they be facing more difficulty trying to get grants for the work that they're doing?
10:14 So obviously we've inherited a really challenging financial situation and we've inherited that
10:19 primarily because in the last 13 years central government just hasn't been funding local
10:24 government properly. So we've seen the money that they give to Medway Council drop 91%
10:29 since 2010. So that's unfortunately the position that we're in. So we are having to look at
10:35 make some quite difficult decisions unfortunately about the future services that we're able
10:41 to provide. But one of the things that we are absolutely trying to protect are our front
10:47 line services that will help people who are experiencing financial difficulties.
10:51 Can I quickly just get in, Adrian, could you respond to that quickly about what they've
10:55 inherited there, the budget shortfall?
10:57 Well certainly, it's rather ironic that Lauren mentioned the Household Support Grant which
11:03 is £4.5 million. That was in the Conservative budget that was put through the council in
11:10 February this year and all the Labour group voted against that. So now it's the money
11:16 that they're making a great...
11:18 Sorry, we've got to hit with that, we've got time for at the moment. But thank you very
11:22 much for joining us and thanks here for joining us on KMTV. You can look at our special programmes
11:28 which are Kent on Climate and the Kent Politics Show on kmtv.co.uk. Thanks and goodbye.
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