A couple with five children say their lives have become a “nightmare” while they feed their kids less healthy ready meals as they struggle through the cost of living crisis.
Whinmoor couple Kevin and Nicola Gomersall, 40 and 39 respectively, have said rising costs have caused their lives to become a misery. They’re having to feed their kids cheap ready-meals, stay in all the time as they can’t afford to go out and they're spending £50 a week just to take one child to school.
Energy costs have also been through the roof for the large family with the children, aged 3, 10, 13, 15 and 17, all on their various computers or games consoles throughout the day when they’re off school.
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Kevin said: “It’s a bit of a nightmare. We don’t even get to go out anymore. We basically have to sit in because we have no more money to pay.
"When you’re living underneath each other, it causes a lot of arguments. We get angry. We need our space.”
Nicola said: “With all the prices going up, it’s going to become a choice of eating or taking your kids to school.”
The couple were selling their possessions at Wetherby Car Boot Sale. Kevin, a construction worker, and Nicola, a cleaner, say energy bills are now an extra £75 a month – “a big jump,” exclaims the concerned mum.
Kevin said: “Food, gas, electric, everything has gone up, bus fare is just about the only thing that hasn’t gone up. The government don’t give a damn.
“Our kids don’t eat as healthy anymore because it costs too much for food. We’re giving them ready meals, something quick and simple.”
The pair say the real kicker is the rise in fuel costs, it costs £50 a week just to take their 15-year-old son to school. Nicola said: “Our son goes to Tadcaster Grammar. I’m having to go there and back every day – it costs me about £50 a week now to get my kid to school.”
He’s on the waiting list for the school bus, which she fumes is still about £80 a month.
Kevin said: “When we rang up for help from the Government, we got told to change our kid’s school to make it easier for us because it’s costing too much.
Nicola said: “I don’t want him to go to schools near us, because they’re not very nice schools.”
Our article headlined “Struggling Leeds couple forced to feed kids nothing but ready meals and sell off possessions” published on 1 July 2022 reported that Nicola and Kevin Gomersall had been forced to feed their children “nothing but ready meals” due to rising food prices and suggested that their children played computer and games consoles “as” they were off school”. However, this was incorrect and misrepresented the couple’s comments to the newspaper. The couple did not solely feed their children ready meals. Further, our substitution of “as” for “when” in the article wrongly suggested that the couple’s children were not in school when they otherwise should have been and played on computer consoles during that time. This correction has been published following an upheld complaint to the Independent Press Standards Organisation.
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