Displaying items by tag: hardship

On 15 November, Pakistan reached an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the release of a $700 million tranche, part of a larger $3 billion bailout package agreed in July. This announcement constitutes a significant relief for the struggling economy, as Pakistan is facing a severe balance of payments crisis and dwindling foreign exchange reserves. The leader of the IMF team noted several causes for encouragement; he said that inflation is expected to decline over the coming months amid receding supply constraints and modest demand, together with aid from international partners, leading to improved economic confidence. However, he warned that Pakistan remains vulnerable to global risks like geopolitical tensions, commodity price fluctuations, and tightening global financial conditions. This agreement comes as Pakistan prepares for general elections in February 2024 and aims to stabilise its economy, which has been in free fall for years, leading to rampant inflation and widespread financial hardship.

Britain’s poorest households are expected to see a huge increase in their living costs when energy bills rise this autumn, leading economists have warned. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the fresh surge in gas and electricity bills expected in October could lead to average annual inflation rates of as high as 14% for the poorest tenth of households. The increase in the energy price cap to close to £2,800 is likely to hit poorer families disproportionately because a larger share of their total spending goes on energy. The IFS said the poorest tenth of households typically spend almost three times as much of their budgets on gas and electricity as the richest 10% do.' The Government has responded by announcing specific financial support for low-income households and pensioners, and wider support for all households to pay their energy bills, funded by a windfall tax on energy companies.

When she checks her son at night, Sandy Birtles can hardly see her teenager for all the coats on his bed. The single mother of two says they have to be careful not to use too much hot water, and they do all they can to keep warm but the bills keep rising. ‘I do not have the heating on when the kids are at school. If I'm not running around and clearing up, then I'm wrapping up in a coat.’ She said that financial pressures mean she has been ‘penny-pinching all the time’, but rising energy bills have added to the strain. A charity has predicted that she - and millions of others - will face a particularly difficult bill shock early next April when domestic energy prices rise. Domestic gas bills will have doubled in 18 months. Pray for suppliers to give more support to struggling customers.

Since 1 January, the European Union has stopped British fishermen from selling oysters, scallops, clams, cockles and mussels, known as live bivalve molluscs (LBM), that are caught in so-called ‘Class B’ waters. The government says it is seeking an ‘urgent resolution’, while the European Commission said that the ban, on health grounds, applies to all third countries and ‘is not a surprise’ to the UK. Meanwhile Cornish shellfish workers are at risk of losing their homes because of the overnight ban on exporting their product to the EU. 65-year-old Tim Heard, who has been catching oysters for fifty years, is just one of the many who have seen their income completely stop.The environment department said, ‘It is unacceptable that the European Commission has changed its position regarding the export of live bivalve molluscs from Class B waters. There is no scientific or technical justification for this, and it is already impacting businesses on both sides of the Channel’.

This year has been tough for us all, but for millions of the poorest in our country life is now desperate. They don’t know where their next meal is coming from and are facing a Christmas of hunger and hardship. Centrepoint say this could be the worst homelessness crisis in their fifty-year history, with 23,000 young lives at risk. They are not just a Christmas statistic, they need a safe warm room to live in. They need to be able to turn their lives around (see) The Salvation Army said that after a difficult year they want to reach out to those who are suffering the most and bring joy and hope into their lives this Christmas. In over 650 communities across the UK they will be rolling up their sleeves and doing all they can for them.

Winter makes life in an improvised refugee camp even harder than it already is for asylum seekers - especially for the most vulnerable. Pregnant women, new-born babies, and the elderly, sleeping in tents without heating, are among hundreds exposed to worsening weather. Hours after a 24-year-old man from Cameroon was found dead at Moria refugee camp in Lesbos, an Oxfam report stated that hundreds of vulnerable people, including survivors of torture, ‘are being abandoned’ in substandard conditions. Oxfam said its concern is that there could be more deaths with the recent freezing weather and the poor preparations for winter in the camps. Every year conditions in and around the camps deteriorate further with the onset of winter because they are not equipped for cold temperatures, heavy rain or snowfall. Pray for those living in muddy bogs, burning anything they can find to keep warm to receive suitable accommodation, and medical support. See also