Charity warns having a job no longer enough to protect from hardship, as thousands across NI struggle to afford food

A charity is warning more than half a million people across Northern Ireland faced hunger last year after struggling to afford food.

Trussell is also warning having a job is no longer protecting people from hardship, with nearly one third of those referred to its foodbanks here in working households.

The charity says severe hardship is being ‘normalised’, as thousands of people in Northern Ireland are on the brink of hunger without turning to a food bank or charitable food provider, and having to go without essentials like food or heating as a routine part of life.

We spoke to a single mum from County Tyrone who works as a part-time carer and ended up reaching out to the charity for help.

She told us the cost-of-living crisis is pushing people to the brink, “Everything’s just going up. Your local shopping, insurance, electric, gas, oil.”

“If something breaks down in your house that costs a couple of hundred pounds, a lot of people think where am I going to pull that out of this month?.”

She continued, “I just knew I had to do something because I couldn’t keep living off nothing. Once my bills came out that was it…I couldn’t even go to the swimming pool with my daughter or anything.”

Trussell is calling on the UK government and NI Executive to urgently strengthen social security and deliver on manifesto commitments to end the need for emergency food.