Family relationships and mental health are suffering as the cost-of-living rises - Paul Carberry

As we approach the end of 2022, many families across Scotland will hold little optimism that the struggle they have endured so far this winter will ease in the coming months. Those who were previously barely managing to get by have found themselves completely overwhelmed by the escalating cost-of-living crisis throughout this year. Earlier this month, Action for Children carried out a big survey of parents and children in Scotland to understand their concerns regarding how they will get through this winter.

A crucial part of the work Action for Children does is ensuring the voice of families, children and young people can be heard and that they are part of the decision-making processes that will shape their future. Our frontline staff are invaluable in helping to collate and amplify the concerns of the families we support and we use that knowledge to campaign for policy change that can reallocate resources to bring about lasting change.

To further strengthen our understanding of how families are coping we also carry out an annual survey of parents across Scotland and this year we worked with Savanta-ComRes on a survey of over 2,500 UK working parents – including 223 in Scotland. We also surveyed the children and young people of these same 2,500 parents to discover their hopes and fears for the festive period as well as our frontline staff.

Given that inflation is at its highest rate in over 40 years, we knew families were struggling but our polling shed light on the extent of the effect this was having on relationships and mental health. For instance, we learned that nearly all (98 per cent) working parents said they have worried about money over the past six months.

Paul Carberry, Action for Children Director.

The stress that comes with this constant burden is manifesting itself in ways that are inflicting long-term damage on parents’ mental and physical health. Almost six in ten (59 per cent) parents told us they have trouble sleeping because of their money worries while nearly one in five (19 per cent) said they have noticed their physical health deteriorating along with more than two-fifths (44 per cent) noticing their mental health worsening.

Further compounding the scale of the problem is the stress this is having on inter-family relationships. Around a fifth (19 per cent) of parents told us they have lost their temper with their children during this period of stress and just under a quarter (22 per cent) said they had become upset or stressed in front of them.

Unfortunately, children are well-aware of the crisis their family is in. Almost a third (32 per cent) of the children in our survey said they thought their parents will be worried about not having enough money to pay the bills over winter and one in five (22 per cent) said they would offer their pocket or gift money to help their parents cover costs this Christmas.

The scale of families struggling as broadened to the extent that many households with both parents working full-time are unable to make ends meet. As it stands, three-quarters (75 per cent) of children in poverty are in working families with rates expected to worsen as the cost-of-living crisis continues. Our own crisis fund has been a vital source of financial support for well over 2,000 families since we implemented it, while programmes like our Functional Family Therapy service have helped repair relationship breakdowns within families.

Resources like these are currently over-prescribed and, despite our best efforts, Action for Children and other charities will be unable to reach the growing number of families in desperate need of support. We need better political choices and immediate action such as an increase in the Scottish Child Payment in April next year and an improvement in income support provided to children in low income households. Without swift action like this families across Scotland will face a harrowing and alarming winter.

Paul Carberry, Action for Children Director for Scotland.