Jenny Holden, 47, of Staffordshire, said the financial support was just a “drop in the ocean”. He said he needed help now and would struggle with rising costs over the next five to six months.
“We’re already being hit by the double whammy of rising food and gasoline prices and we’re really feeling the shock waves,” he said. “We are a family of four – I have two 11-year-olds – and filling the car and buying a shopping bag is not possible for us. It seems like we are in recession. We can’t afford to go holiday this quarter and you feel that pressure as a parent. “
Pat Mulligan, 49, the father of four children from West Yorkshire, said the support would not “touch the sides” and that he was already paying an additional £ 600 for food, petrol and heating every month than last year.
He said: “My dual energy bills were £ 80 a month; now they are £ 230 a month. My weekly road fuel bill was £ 60 a week and now it’s £ 120 a week. Our weekly grocery store has risen from £ 120 to over £ 180 in weeks. “.
The combined £ 550 of the energy bill subsidy and the municipal tax rebate account for only 14% of the extra costs families incur. The newspaper’s analysis found that middle-class households were struggling with bill increases of almost £ 4,000 this year as inflation rises.
Train fares, which are linked to inflation, have risen by 3.8%, adding £ 194 to the cost of an annual pass between Brighton and London. Households with variable mortgages with £ 250,000 outstanding have seen their annual repayments increase by £ 1,872, as official interest rates have risen to 1% from an all-time low of 0.1%.
Meanwhile, average annual food bills are £ 271 higher, according to Kantar researchers, while the city tax for the average D-band property increases by £ 67 during the year.