Barnardos children’s charity launched new research, conducted by Amárach Research, which highlights the impact that recent cost of living increases are having on parents and children across the country. The children’s charity details the impact the rising cost of living is having specifically on the families Barnardos works with, from their experience on the ground. Barnardos is calling on the Government to target additional measures at low income families, including the introduction of a hardship fund, to ensure children don’t go without items essential to their social, emotional and physical wellbeing and development.
‘All it takes is for one cost to crop up or one thing to breakdown and they are tipped into financial crisis’, Barnardos staff member
Barnardos commissioned Amárach Research to carry out a nationally representative survey with over 300 parents/guardians with children aged 17 or younger living with them. It found:
- Almost two thirds of parents (63%) stated they and their children had to go without essentials, such as those listed in the table below, over the past 6 months due to cost of living increases.
- Over one quarter of parents (28%) have cut back or gone without heat, and almost one in four (23%) have cut back or gone without electricity.
- Over one third stated they have had to cut back on clothes and alarmingly, one in six have cut back or gone without on medical appointments/medicines.