From job to handouts in six weeks

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'I'm pinching pennies from my child'

By Emma Simpson
Business reporter, BBC News

Six weeks is all that it took for Peter Baldry to go from a well-paying job to seeking handouts to feed his family.

It sounds hard to believe - and Peter, aged 42, can scarcely believe it himself.

Since 1983, he had worked on the railways in maintenance and installation. But he was let go from his current position at the end of July.

One week later, the income dried up and his life quickly began to unravel.

I'm fighting to keep the wolves from the door Peter Baldry

"It's so hard to go down from earning to having nothing. I didn't think I'd lose my job, it's all such a bad dream," he says, standing in his kitchen in a comfortable suburb of Haverhill in Suffolk.

Peter is literally counting out the pennies on the kitchen counter. The coins are from his kids' piggy banks and cups of loose change around the house.

The money, he says, will help feed the electricity meter or pay for his petrol. Six weeks earlier, he had been earning £19 an hour.

"This is what it's come down to, pinching it out of my daughter's tin to put it all together. It's ridiculous that the cash flow has just gone."

They have also been running out of food. But that's where volunteers from the Haverhill charity foodbank step in.

They arrive to drop off three boxes of emergency supplies, much to the delight of Peter's three children.

As unemployment continues to rise, more and more people across the UK are turning to foodbanks for help. These organisations provide food parcels to people who are struggling to feed themselves.

The demand has soared in the recession. Last year, they fed 14,000 people. This year, the number has nearly doubled.

Jewellery pawned

Peter's problem is all too familiar. This is the story of a family loaded with debt, a hefty mortgage and drowning in bills.

Shoppers have rallied round to help the foodbank volunteers

His wife, Jan, works part-time in a local school and as a carer, but her salary doesn't begin to cover the outgoings.

She is also off work after falling down the stairs, an accident she believes was partly down to all the financial stress.

"I've pawned my family jewellery to get money, that's how bad it is," she says.

"You hear of this happening to other people, but you don't expect it to happen to you."

The Baldrys had been coping, but the sudden loss of income has left the family on the breadline.

They have already missed two mortgage payments.

Peter's situation has been compounded by a four-week wait for Jobseeker's Allowance.

"I am shocked and worried. I'm fighting to keep the wolves from the door. I've literally run out of cash," he says.

It's people like the Baldrys that foodbanks are designed to help.

A network of them is springing up across the UK, run by the Christian charity, the Trussell Trust. There are now nearly 50 projects underway.

The food is donated by the public and is distributed to their own local communities through a voucher system.

It's amazing how throwing in just one tin of spaghetti to your weekly shop can quickly add up.

Community at work

Last Saturday in Swindon, the foodbank team were out in force, handing out a list of essentials for Asda shoppers to purchase on their behalf. The supermarket was soon awash with shoppers clutching these little blue lists.

Food parcels help those who have fallen on hard times

Many shoppers didn't buy just one item, some were donating by the bagful.

In a town that has seen heavy job losses, this was a community at work.

And some of those who have bought food for others have ended up on the receiving end themselves.

"We just suddenly found a whole group of people coming into us after Christmas, white-collar workers who were lost and didn't know where to go," said Richard Belsham, the man in charge of Swindon's foodbank.

Delay in securing unemployment benefit is one of the biggest reasons why people turn to foodbanks for help.

"These were people who never expected to lose their jobs and who suddenly had a hole in their finances, the pressure is then on them. They've still got their bills, but they're running out of cash. It's often the food element that goes," said Richard.

He reckons that in Swindon, some people would take only six weeks to go from having a salary to turning to the foodbank.

Peter Baldry is living that nightmare. He's got to find another job to survive and time is running out.

"I don't wish this on anyone. It's horrible. I'm robbing Peter to pay Paul, but I'm going to keep on fighting. You've got to."