Cost Of Inequality Story 13

This is Alicia Alicia Community recording. Um, I'm here to ask Scott what the cost of living means to him and how it affects him on a daily basis. My answer would be straight off that they call it cost of living, but it isn't. It's cost of surviving

I'm disabled, um, struggle with most things. But as I get into explaining it, hopefully this will shed some light. Years and years ago, people who were disabled used to beg in the street, and they used to put their cap out waiting for people to give them money, and they would put their hands in the cap and put money in there

That's why that's why that's why the word handicap developed because people will put their hand in a cup and then it becomes handicapped. I feel like every day I'm pulling my hat out and I'm begging for money. I'm trying to work out the best way to survive

Do I choose to put more on the electric, or do I choose to put more on the gas knowing that we need electric for all the appliances, but with the conditions that I have and the pine I mean, I need the heating up. So what do you choose? And how do you balance that up? I'm a type one diabetic as well. So every time I see the doctor, their advice is you need to eat this

You should have this healthy food. You should get this. But if you look at this food and what I would need, the pricing is ridiculous

So then I have to make a choice. Do I have this food which is apparently meant to make me feel better? Or do I let the rest of the family have hardly any food? Because I'm having to. So I make the choice to sacrifice my health

I would rather that the house I live in everybody's fed, so I won't entertain me. Eating the correct food and depriving other family members of their food. And these and all choices that you make are on a daily basis

You check your wallet in the morning to see how much money you've got. Can I afford to do that? Can I get there? People don't realise that with this cost of living Sorry. Cost of surviving

We're not doing anything. We are just surviving we don't go out. We don't do cinemas or P stuff that people take for granted because you have to make a choice

You have to choose whether you wanna wait or do you wanna go out? Do you want your lights on? Would you wanna go out? So every time people say, Oh, they've got this much money coming Oh, they've got this to cover it. They don't realise the outgoings and they don't realise the stuff that we have to go through on a daily basis just to survive. Oh, look, everything I work out and I spend an awful lot of time balancing money up, and it is like robbing Peter to pay Paul

I will make a decision. I will pay one bill knowing that I can't pay the other bill. But then I will hold on until the letter comes through on that bill and then pay that one and leave the other one

And this is how most families are coping with numerous choices every day about how do they live? How do they want? So we don't have a choice in how we want to live. We have a constraint that controls us. and controls everything we do

So when people talk about the cost of living, they don't realise that your supermarket shop has probably gone up 2030 quid that your gas bill and electric They put on these major like tariffs and they turn around and say This is the stop import But they don't realise that families haven't got that much money to pay at their point. So if you are working class all hour, you are at the bottom of the food chain. And bit by bit, this cost of living is wearing People Day

And this I believe my own opinion is the way that governments control people. They control people by demoralising them by making them feel that they're begging that they are unworthy of any help because the weaker we get, the less people speak up. So while they sit there in parliament with their free dinners, having everything paid for them while representing us cos we vote the be but they're not looking after us

Everything goes up and we are the ones who will always suffer. So when people ask me about the cost of living, I will emphasise again. It is not a cost of living

It is a cost of surviving. And eventually people will realise that we aren't people who beg. We are people who just want to have some kind of life

We just want to have some kind of enjoyment. And the cost of living has took that out of Mag and I have more family because anything we do is a magistrate. So all I can say on that is as a dad and a husband, I will always put myself second two, whatever's needed

And is that doing my health any good? Probably not. But you put me in this position, uh, where I have to make a choice and it becomes detrimental to me. So I will end it by saying, Unless people start speaking up, start taking it seriously, start helping the people who can't do the stuff

The people who are disabled like myself. I'm not second class. I'm not any worse than the people out there

So why should I be treated like that? Why should I be forced down to a point where having something is a miracle is an absolute joy? So that is my answer to the cost of living and and how it affects our family. Thank you.