Lightbulbs moved room to room: Reality of cost of living crisis in Northern Ireland

Members of a Belfast community group have said they are stunned by what they are seeing as those already struggling try to cope with the soaring cost of living.

“It’s been absolutely overwhelming – people are on their knees,” Laura Tweedy from Help At Hand told UTV, as her home became an emergency collection point for aid.

“We have gone into homes where one lightbulb is being moved around from room to room.

“Young women expecting their first baby don’t know where to turn.

“We are going in to the elderly that are now obviously living a life where they’re thinking: ‘I can’t put that electric in because then I might not have enough money to feed myself…’ But then they’re sitting wrapped in blankets.”

One man feeling the brunt of rising energy costs spoke about the pressure he is under to keep his home warm enough as he suffers from cancer.

“I have to keep the heating on constant,” Joseph Faloon said.

“And now that heating has went up, it’s actually doubled, near tripled the heating, the price of it.”

With increased costs for home heating, at the petrol pumps and in the supermarkets, there are fears more and more people will be pushed into poverty - despite measures announced by the Chancellor which many are saying do not go far enough.