Struggling Scots parents 'skipping meals to feed family' as cost of living continues to rise

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A fifth of parents in Scotland are feeding family members before themselves due to the cost-of-living crisis, research has found.The survey for Which?

found 22% of parents in the Scottish survey are prioritising feeding other family members over feeding themselves, compared with 8% of the population overall.Around one in 10 respondents (11%) said they are skipping meals due to rising food costs.

The survey carried out by Yonder questioned more than 1,000 consumers in Scotland to understand the impact of the cost-of-living crisis.One 55-year-old woman told the researchers: "We are having to skip meals, not have the heating on and not going out due to fuel costs".The new information also found that nearly eight in 10 consumers have been putting the heating on less due to the increase in energy prices.Almost nine in 10 consumers said they were worried about energy prices (89%), while concern around food and housing costs have increased sharply compared with the previous year.The proportion of people worried about food prices increased by 10 percentage points to almost nine in 10 (87%) in December 2022, compared to 77% in 2021 and 63% in 2020.Which?

has estimated that if consumers tried to maintain the same spending habits they would need to spend an additional £40 per week - or around £2,080 a year - on food, energy and fuel in December 2022 compared with December 2021.That would mean almost a third of their household expenditure would be spent on just these essential goods.As a result of this, many households have had to make changes to cover essential spending, with many people cutting back on essentials, which increased to 39% from 25% in 2021.The financial pressures being faced by people are now causing emotional harm,