In autumn 2023 SIS carried out some research into the impacts of the cost of living crisis.
“The cost of living crisis refers to a period of time during which the cost of everyday essentials like food and bills increases more quickly than average household income. The UK has been experiencing a cost of living crisis since late 2021. Although the cost of living crisis affects us all, those of us on lower incomes are disproportionately impacted.”Crisis
- 12 SIS Service Users speaking Arabic, Farsi or Portuguese were interviewed by 3 SIS Bilingual Community Researchers using a set of guided questions.
- 6 professional linguists responded to an online survey composed of the same question set.
All respondents reported being negatively affected by the ongoing cost of living crisis and having to make substantial and detrimental changes to how they currently live their lives. Many commented that bills and costs of everyday and essential items are rising faster in comparison to salaries or state benefit amounts.
- The majority were either entirely or largely restricting their use of heating at home.
- More than half have changed their eating habits
- reducing the number of meals a day
- spending a lot of time shopping to find the best deals
- only buying the cheapest food.
- More than half have had to reduce or completely cut out social activities and hobbies, including, in some cases, for their children.
“I only eat twice a day.”
“We stopped using the heating at home.”
“I cannot take my children out.”
These changes are having an impact on peoples’ physical and mental health conditions:
- joint and mobility problems worsening
- difficulty getting to appointments due to transport/parking costs
- feelings of anxiety and stress
- increased isolation due to reduction in social activities
- stress and anxiety had led to or worsened their physical health conditions.
“I wake up at night worried about bills.”
“Managing our living costs is so difficult and challenge. It is making us anxious and worried.”
“My priority is having affordable, warm, and comfortable accommodation.”
Around a third of people had already accessed some form of support, in particular local specialist advice services through the SIS Social Prescribing project. When asked what support or information they would like to have, there were three main themes:
- financial support (e.g. food vouchers, local discretionary support fund)
- accessible information (e.g. translated resources, workshops in their language)
- reduced costs (e.g. rent control, cheaper parking permits).
Recommendations as a result of this research include:
- Translated information about access to food banks and low-cost food options locally
- Translated information about reducing energy costs
- Translated information about budgeting
- Workshops in other languages (or with an interpreter) about reducing energy costs and accessing support for bills / living costs
- SIS Projects Coordinator to offer support on some issues flagged by individuals in the interviews through SIS’ Bilingual Social Prescribing service
The SIS Projects team have already actioned some of the recommendations, including translation and distribution of info about food banks, as well as SIS Bilingual Social Prescribers making onward referrals and applications to:
- BHESCo for help with assessing whether possible to switch to a cheaper tariff or provider.
- BHESCo for home energy efficiency visits with free energy saving measures such as low energy lightbulbs.
- Warm Homes Discount.
- Supermarket and Paypoint (Energy) vouchers through applications to the Local Discretionary Social Fund (LDSF).
The full report can be read here.
See also https://sussexinterpreting.org.uk/news/the-cost-of-living-crisis/ for other info and steps previously taken by SIS around this topic. For example, SIS provided free interpreters to people attending workshops organised by the Network of International Women looking at reducing utility bills, checking benefit entitlements and explaining how to access grants and food banks. We promoted these with translated SMS messages to SIS Service Users.
