Cost of living: Action urged to save lives in Wales this winter

A leading Welsh think-tank said the Welsh government should act now to save lives this winter.

Dr Victoria Winckler from the Bevan Foundation said the cost of living crisis was already impacting people's mental and physical health in Wales.

She added without further action people's lives were at risk.

The Welsh government pledged to offer targeted support as it helps people through the winter months and cost of living crisis.

Dr Winckler said the UK government made the "big decisions" about distribution in society and the Welsh government was limited by its powers and budget.

However, she said the Welsh government had done a lot during Covid, which was "to their credit" and they needed to make sure they were still providing "emergency help".

This comes as energy bills rose again on 1 October, which means prices are twice as high as last winter.

Dr Winckler said the Welsh government needed to "streamline access to the schemes it does provide" and ensure that people are getting all the support they can.

She said that while one off payments were welcome, people needed certainty so they could budget.

In response, a Welsh government spokesman said it would continue to do everything it could to support people through the cost of living crisis, providing targeted support to people who need it the most and through universal programmes which put money back in people's pockets.

This autumn, it will be helping people claim all the benefits they are entitled to, including their £200 winter fuel support payment which is in addition to the UK government support on energy bills.

Dr Winckler said: "Unless we do something, we will start seeing people losing their lives early. But also, just a depth of misery, a depth of poor quality existence that I don't think is acceptable".

At the Dusty Forge Community Centre in Ely, Cardiff, people were worried about rising costs.

Carol Coyle, 57, said that increasing food prices were putting her under pressure.

She said: "It's like the bread in Aldi and Lidl used to be 45p, it's gone up to 65p. I know it's only 20p, but all those 20ps can all add up.

"And then the gas and electric, you don't just have one rising here, you have three or four and it's crippling."

Tanya Clarke, 57, was also worried about the winter, and said: "The cost of living is so high, and your benefits are so low and there's no way they're going to end up levelling it up so we can survive.

"What are people going to do? Well they've got to decide, do you have electric or do you have gas? Do you have food?"

Meanwhile, a survey of 720 frontline housing and homelessness support workers found that 44% were struggling to pay their own bills, and 7% were using food banks, according Cymorth Cymru, which represents the sector.

"We're speaking to people who are taking on extra additional jobs on top of full time work," director Katie Dalton told BBC Radio Wales' Sunday Supplement.

"One person that we spoke to said that colleagues were being pushed into sex work to make ends meet, others are skipping meals, others are getting into debt."