Single mother and father hit hardest by ‘terrible April’ invoice rises | EUROtoday

A sequence of important family payments are rising firstly of April, with warnings that single mother and father are among the many hardest hit.

Water payments, vitality costs and council tax are all going up in what has been dubbed “awful April”, though the minimal wage can also be rising.

The charity Citizens Advice mentioned the funds of hundreds of thousands of individuals on the bottom incomes had been “already stretched to breaking point”.

Many single mother and father particularly would wrestle as a result of a larger proportion of their cash was taken up by important spending, it mentioned.

Laura Roan, a single mom of two daughters from Cardiff, mentioned: “Without my own mum helping, there would be some days when I would not have any electric.”

The 41-year-old, who works part-time in Asda, is utilizing emergency credit score on her vitality meter and repeatedly dips into her overdraft.

“I got paid last Friday and it has all gone. I just live day to day.”

She mentioned her five-year-old daughter Prudence introduced her pleasure and infrequently took her thoughts off the monetary challenges they confronted.

Those challenges are rising as a bunch of worth rises kick in. The prices of a TV licence, automotive tax, and broadband and telephone payments are amongst these going up in value.

Among the adjustments:

• Water payments for households are going up in England and Wales by £10 extra per 30 days on common, though it varies significantly by provider, and by virtually 10% in Scotland
• The annual vitality invoice for a family in England, Wales and Scotland on a variable tariff and utilizing a typical quantity of gasoline and electrical energy goes up by £111 a yr to £1,849
• Council tax payments in England are typically going up by 4.99%, with payments in Wales rising by about 4.5% to 9.5%, and in Scotland by at the least 8%

“After years of cost-of-living pressures, households across the country are about to feel the extra shock of rising essential bills,” mentioned Dame Clare Moriarty, chief govt of Citizens Advice.

“For those on the lowest incomes, these unavoidable costs are already eating away at their finances, leaving their budgets stretched beyond breaking point.”

The charity mentioned households within the lowest 10% for earnings had been already spending round two fifths (41%) of their earnings – after housing – on water, vitality, broadband and automotive insurance coverage payments. That was a significantly greater proportion than these on increased incomes.

Single-adult households, and notably these with youngsters, had been extra doubtless than others to be spending 20% or extra of their post-housing earnings on these payments, leaving them extra uncovered to cost shocks, it mentioned.

John Paine is a single dad with three autistic youngsters aged between 5 and eight. He mentioned he had £100 left over on the finish of the month when all of the payments had been paid.

“It goes quickly,” he mentioned, with a college journey, a picnic or a day trip normally taking over a giant chunk of that spending cash. “It means we do not go out very much,” he mentioned.

Official figures present {that a} fifth of households should not have any financial savings, leaving them in danger.

Dozens of individuals have gotten in contact by way of Your Voice, Your BBC News to inform us of their experiences.

Among them is Bradley Bayton-Harvey, who lives along with his associate Ange in Dudley. They have three women, together with three-year-old Darcie-Mai. Both have full-time jobs with the NHS.

“We both work nearly 200 hours a month, and it is still a stretch. We’re rejiggling finances again and again,” he mentioned.

“If we can try to get any additional shifts in our rest days to get that extra income, it’s frustrating because those rest days should be family time.

“You should not have to show round to your children and say you could’t afford to go on vacation.”

Benefits and the state pension are going up in a week’s time. Wages have also been rising at a faster pace than the rate of inflationand the start of April also brings an increase in the minimum wage. It means:

• The minimum wage for over-21s, known officially as the National Living Wage, has now risen by 6.7%, from £11.44 to £12.21 an hour. For someone working full time, or a 37.5-hour week, that equates to £23,873.60 a year, up from £22,368.06
• For 18 to 20-year-olds, the minimum wage has gone up from £8.60 to £10 an hour. This means someone on a 37.5-hour week would earn £19,552 a year, up from £16,815. However only a minority of people in this age group do work full time
• Apprentices are now being paid £7.55 an hour, up from £6.40. That means their annual wage is going up to £14,762 from £12,513

In addition, experts say there are ways to cut costs to keep household bills as low as possible.

“Our analysis reveals that switching suppliers for those who’re out of contract can slash broadband, pay TV and cell payments by as much as £235,” said Emily Seymour, from the consumer group Which?.

“It’s additionally value checking for those who’re eligible for any council tax reductions or exemptions and will lower your expenses by putting in a water meter.”

Some of the UK’s largest banks have additionally mentioned they’d pro-actively contact clients they believed had been struggling financially to supply help.