Introduction
Almost as soon as the COVID-19 pandemic began to grip the UK, indications of its unequal impacts started to appear. Early evidence highlighted elevated morbidity and mortality from the virus in ethnically minoritised groups, elevated risks and exposure for keyworkers, and patterns of increased financial insecurity as a result of people’s employment status, age, housing, income, and occupation (Institute for Fiscal Studies [IFS], 2020a; Judge and Rahman, 2020; Norman, 2020; Office for National Statistics [ONS], 2020; Public Health England [PHE], 2020). Once home schooling began, the impact on children – and their futures – quickly became apparent, as access to educational tools and resources fell along established social lines (Child Poverty Action Group [CPAG], 2020; Education Endowment Foundation, 2020). It was clear that ‘the new normal’ wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic had exacerbated and exposed pre-existing inequalities (IFS, 2020b; Marmot et al, 2020) and was starting to affect people in greater numbers than before. As economic shocks and uncertainty took hold, millions more people turned to the social security system for support – in just under a year (March 2020 to January 2021), for example, the number of Universal Credit (UC) claimants doubled (Department for Work and Pensions [DWP], 2021).
These troubling new social conditions emerged as Government discourse presented a more egalitarian view: that COVID-19 was a great leveller; that, like austerity, ‘we are all in this together’ (Nolan, 2021). It was this gap between rhetoric and reality that spurred the creation of the Covid Realities research programme. Establishing a partnership between the Universities of York and Birmingham, and working closely with the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), Covid Realities sought to develop a living archive of the experiences of families living on a low income during the pandemic.
The mainstay of Covid Realities is a website, http://covidrealities.org. Here, parents can sign into a secure personal dashboard to write diary entries or answer themed ‘Big Questions of the Week’ – a weekly question posed by a member of the research team, a participant, or a guest from an external organisation. Monthly online discussion groups and arts-based activities such as zine-making provide more interactive opportunities for engagement. In the 12 months from June 2020, 172 parents from across the UK signed up, with 120 logging at least one diary entry, and 47 posting ten or more. Some participants only posted one-word or one-sentence entries, while our most prolific diarist accounted for just over a quarter of the 2,526 entries to July 2021, and a second accounted for just under a quarter of the 294,499 submitted words. Of those who entered demographic details, 93 per cent were female and 91 per cent White British1 with an average age of 38.7 years old (range: 19–58). Over a third were in work, with a quarter unable to work due to disability. Slightly over half received UC, and 46 per cent of households in the sample had children who were eligible for free school meals.
Entries were coded through NVivo software using both inductive and deductive themes. Multiple iterations of pilot coding, team discussion, and refinement led to an agreed final framework. The sections that follow provide illustrative findings from four dominant and interconnected themes: the struggle to get by; the inadequacy of social security; the additional pressures of lockdown; and the impact of social security and poverty on parents’ mental health. These themes are explored further in case studies of two participants. We conclude with participant-informed recommendations for policy change.
Key themes
Getting by
‘The money I receive has not increased in several years … so [an increasing broadband bill] will mean even less food in the cupboard and a really tough time during the winter as I … will not be able to afford the cost of heating our home even for a short period of time each day.’ (Erik J, June 2020)
‘I can’t even afford a paddling pool and it’s due to be 38 degrees tomorrow. My neighbours just bought a hot tub. I honestly want the thing to break in its first week. Sounds awful but I am sick to death of seeing and hearing everyone else having a marvellous time.’ (August 2020)
While for Nicole’s daughter, home learning drove home their poverty: “Dance teacher showing all the individual dancers videos of them dancing at home. My daughter is upset and embarrassed about our flat. The others have lovely big homes and beautiful show home furniture” (February 2021). Television and social media made comparisons still more painful, with Scotland’s Home of the Year and “photos of sledging and snowboarding kids” driving home for Nicole that “[h]aving a decent income really makes a difference”.
Social security
For many Covid Realities participants, the pressures of getting by were rooted in the structure and processes of the social security system. Those who had moved on to UC both before and during the pandemic – over half of our participants – faced profound difficulties in managing the five-week ‘initial assessment period’, during which they received no income. Charlie, for example, spoke of how he was driven to use a food bank for the first time: “We used a food bank because of splitting from my wife … and going from Child Tax Credits over to Universal Credit. And the six-week delay had a massive, massive impact and knock on with no money for six weeks coming in” (May 2021). This experience is not uncommon. Evidence suggests that in the 12 months after UC is rolled out in an area, there is on average a 30 per cent increase in referrals to Trussell Trust food banks (The Trussell Trust, 2019) and this statistic does not include independent food aid providers, so could represent an underestimation of the number of people in need of emergency food aid while awaiting their first UC payment.
‘We went nearly 9 weeks trying to survive as a family of six on £60 per week, I tried desperately not to get into debt … Luckily [the village school] were happy to start my children on free school meals, it was a little bit of relief knowing they would get at least one decent meal a day.’ (January 2021)
While some finance companies provided payment holidays, and homeowners were able to take advantage of mortgage holidays to weather the financial difficulties caused by COVID-19, following a pause in the first few months of the pandemic the Government has continued to deduct debt repayments (for advances and other debts such as housing arrears) throughout the past year, leading to further hardship (see also Chapters 1 and 3). Evidence suggests in August 2020 that 41 per cent (1.85 million) of households on UC were
Sometimes, parents transferred to UC because of erroneous advice to do so at the beginning of the pandemic (later revised). Ted reported he was told that he would retain his Child and Working Tax Credits (WTC) – and so switched to UC, only to be face unmanageable debt: “I was worried at the amount they deducted this month (£192 which leaves £864) … They said … at the time of accepting it I said I could afford [repayments], I pointed out that at the time of taking that advance … no one had told me the legacy [benefits] would stop” (October 2020). Meanwhile, policies such as the benefit cap continued throughout the pandemic, adding further pressure to households who already had little flexibility in monthly budgets. Aurora explains how the benefit cap impacted upon her and her family: “We are capped on UC. I’m a widowed parent of two primary-aged children. Our rent alone is over 95 per cent of our total benefits” (October 2020). The £20 uplift applied to WTC and UC in April 2020 provided a welcome boost to households, though frequently served only to cover pre-existing deficits in monthly budgets. A series of temporary extensions to the uplift generated uncertainty among those households who received this and at the time of writing, the uplift will stop altogether in October 2021. Many Covid Realities participants did not benefit from the extra £20 per week at all because they were in receipt of legacy benefits. Applying the uplift to some benefits but not others has created a two-tiered system of deservingness that leaves behind legacy benefit claimants, the majority of whom may have health conditions and disabilities, or who are carers (Cameron, 2021).
Locked down, locked in: compounded pressure
‘We were meant to be away for three nights in my parents’ new caravan. Unfortunately my eldest was sent home to self-isolate for 14 days from school so we are unable to go … I am feeling incredibly fed up … So many people still seem to be going out and enjoying fun experiences but I don’t feel able to do that.’ (October 2020)
The grinding budgets, inadequate social security payments, and the compressed tension of lockdown had consequences. By the end of March 2021, one in three Covid Realities diary entries made reference to some aspect(s) of mental health – predominantly anxiety and low mood.
Mental health
‘It feels like a community. Hearing other people’s life experiences and thoughts and opinions is helpful. Knowing other people are going through similar to you makes you feel like you are not alone. Knowing we’re trying to make a difference between us to everyone’s lives is also empowering! Together we are making a difference.’ (Isla F, March 2021)
Alex and Victoria
Echoing several chapters throughout this collection, Covid Realities speaks to the feminisation of poverty (for example Chant, 2007; 2008; see also discussion in Lister, 2020). It may be in part an artefact of online diary methods, but 13 in every 14 participants were female; two thirds were parenting alone.2 Sole parenting and domestic abuse played significant roles in many of our participants’ pathways into poverty, and Alex and Victoria’s sharp choice between financial security and terrifying (male) violence stood as a powerful indicator of gendered dynamics. Strikingly, drawing on Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) data, Hakitova et al (2019) estimate that 60 per cent of all lone parent families in the UK could be lifted out of poverty by adequate child maintenance payments (Hakitova et al, 2019: 16).
‘To the future people who read this study, who read about the plights of us low-income families, know that I thank you for taking time to look back on our nation’s past. And heed this: learn from our mistakes. Value your undervalued. Prioritise potential over tax ability. How many minds are wasted in the drains of societies?’ (July 2020)
Victoria attended a wide range of participatory events available to Covid Realities participants, and was keen to drive social change. Alex engaged with Covid Realities for different reasons – finding a space to offload, free of judgement: “[In my diary] I can say exactly how I feel without others dismissing/calling me depressing/negative/bitter” (March 2021). Alex’s engagement was one-way. She shared how she was feeling almost every day, but – almost uniquely – provided no functional email address and participated in no interactive activities.
‘I knew when I left my ex that I was making a choice between living in hell with him or living in relative poverty without him, I chose the latter cos at least my kids would be safe from abuse on benefits. But it’s a shitty choice … Hunger or assault. A poor example of living, or the daily risk of death.’ (March 2021)
Abuse remained a persistent companion for both. Alex’s ex-partner refused to pay child maintenance, and she saw the Child Maintenance Service’s failure to help as sustained abuse from an uncaring, patriarchal government. Victoria’s memories of abuse were triggered by her experiences of the (controlling, dominant, and seemingly punitive) social security system: “Just thinking about it, about having to go to the job centre again and be approved the money needed to feed my kids for another month, makes me feel physically sick, dizzy and clammy. It’s a very unhealthy environment for anyone, let alone abuse survivors” (May 2021). For Alex and Victoria, life before lockdown had been tough, but manageable. However, lockdown brought with it new challenges – new precarity, new fears of ill health, new reminders of old trauma – rooted in gendered inequalities, and greatly increasing their sense of vulnerability and exposure.
Implications of this work for policy
As qualitative, diary-based research, Covid Realities has been well positioned to capture rich insights into the daily lives and experiences of families on a low income as the pandemic has unfolded. These experiences point to one clear message: that the social security system is failing families. Moreover, the inadequacies within the system have been greatly exacerbated by the pandemic (Brewer and Gardiner, 2020; CPAG, 2020; Trades Union Congress [TUC], 2020). It is clear that we are not ‘all in it together’ (Nolan, 2021); rather, pre-existing social inequalities have been hardened by social security structures that force families into hard, swift decisions between debt and hunger, and that make it incredibly difficult to escape.
There have been some positives during the pandemic, as we also see in Chapters 6, 8, and 9. At a time when families found themselves in dire need of support, significant new steps were taken – an uplift of £20 UC for some, a pause in conditionality, and the suspension of the minimum income floor (for example Brewer and Handscombe, 2020: 7; Joseph
Nor has the policy response adequately addressed the particular needs of families. Having children meant home schooling; home schooling added meals, heating, materials, and entertainment to family costs (Brewer and Patrick, 2021). The cost of school uniforms also represented a unique burden on families, compelling some to choose between heating, eating, or a new school blazer (Page et al, 2021). Lockdown – and home schooling – then added disproportionately to the stresses and strains of family life. Parents had no option but to become teachers, counsellors, and constant companions to children who were themselves enduring a generational event. The stress of doing this within small houses and flats, sometimes without access to outside space, was severe. Our participants were clear about the harmful impact on their mental health and about the causes of this: inadequate food, inadequate heating, inadequate clothing, inadequate housing, and an inability to prosper, thrive, or adequately feed their children left them struggling with low mood and persistent stress and anxiety – key themes also highlighted by Cameron et al in Chapter 6.
‘Before I was swept into poverty due to circumstances beyond my control, I was in full-time employment in the NHS, I was married with children, I was buying my own home with my husband via a mortgage, I was studying for a degree and I was doing all of those things.’
Through hearing directly from parents and carers such as Meg, Covid Realities research has been able to reframe and challenge harmful, negative stereotypes about poverty and has highlighted just some of the myriad different circumstances by which people may find themselves experiencing poverty and accessing social security. Traditional accounts of stigma often foreground the passivity of those who are stigmatised, but people can and do challenge negative stereotypes if given the space to do so (Thoits, 2011).
Through Covid Realities, parents and carers have communicated directly with politicians, the media, and the public, to generate greater understanding about poverty and social security, as well as what needs to change and why. In doing so, Covid Realities has also demonstrated the inadequacy of our current safety net for supporting families and provided a space for resistance. As we move forward through the pandemic, Covid Realities participants will continue to engage with policymakers and their stories will act as a living archive for researchers and the public, both now and in the future.
Notes
This may be an overestimation – through the Big Ideas Groups we know of several non-White and asylum-seeking participants who did not provide any demographic information.
Male partners were also very rarely mentioned by diarists who identified as partnered or married.
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