ORDINARY PEOPLE FORCED TO PAY FOR TORIES ECONOMIC MISTAKES

Ordinary people are making great sacrifices to pay for the Tories’ economic mistakes, the SNP has said after a fresh survey revealed the impact of winter pressures on financially hit households.

Findings from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Winter Survey found almost a quarter of adults were occasionally, hardly ever, or never, able to keep comfortably warm in the past two weeks, amidst the Tory-made cost of living crisis forcing households to make a choice between whether to heat or eat.

The report also cast a light on the impact of the cost of living crisis on people’s mental health, with 44% of respondents experiencing moderate-to-severe depressive symptoms.

The SNP’s Economy spokesperson, Stewart Hosie MP, said it was time for the Tories to be increasing support for struggling households, warning of even more difficult times ahead as the UK stumbles into a recession.

Commenting, Stewart Hosie MP said:

“Through no fault of their own households across the UK are being made to make great sacrifices to pay for the Tories’ economic failures - a situation that shows exactly why Scotland needs to be an independent country.

“With the UK’s economic crisis set to worsen and hammer household incomes the Tories should be taking a hard look at themselves and reconsidering the pittance they have offered up in support of struggling households.

“Allowing families to languish in poverty is not the way out of an economic crisis, these findings must wake the Tories up to the economic reality that austerity doesn’t work.

“At the very least we must see a reversal of the £20 a week cut to Universal Credit, a continuation of the Energy Support Scheme and the UK government following Scotland’s lead by bringing in a UK-wide child payment.

“Ordinary people in Scotland should not be made to bear the brunt of the Tories’ failures. Families needed this economic support yesterday but have instead suffered as calls continue to fall on deaf ears.

“Scottish families deserve better with the economic prosperity and proper support that the full powers of independence can deliver.”