The town where a 'horrible' situation frightens people 'to bits'
manchestereveningnews.co.ukAlan Marland approaches the cash machine, pulls out his bank card and pushes it into the plastic slot. A message pops up on the screen as he goes to withdraw £10. ‘Insufficient funds,’ it reads.
His legs go weak. His head is spinning. He’s hit by an overwhelming sense of dread. That money was all he had in the world. The dad was forced to sell his home in 2017 after losing his decorating job and he had been living off the £40k profit ever since.
Now he found himself begging his son to lend him a tenner. “I nearly keeled over and died,” the 65-year-old, from Oldham, told the Manchester Evening News. READ MORE: One of Manchester's poorest neighbourhoods where struggling residents are scared to retire Alan, who is unable to find work due to suffering from dizziness, is now down to his very last pennies as the cost-of-living crisis continues to cripple the nation. “I’m struggling like mad,” he added. “I’ve just been to the job centre because I’ve had dizziness for four years. “There’s a food bank near me on Huddersfield Road.
When I’m really desperate, I’ll go there. I’ve had people say, ‘If you ring this number, they’ll deliver door-to-door'. “But I’ve worked all my life and I’m quite a proud person.
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