More than 80 per cent of our readers have seen their bills go up and noticed the cost of food rising as we head into Winter.
As part of our campaign Benefit Bristol - which we will be running over the next few months to highlight some of the support available to Bristol's most disadvantaged families - we launched a survey to learn more about how Bristolians were feeling ahead of the colder months.
We wanted to know if people in the city had seen the cost of food rise and were also interested in finding out whether people had seen their bills go up as we head into Winter.
READ MORE: Quiet struggle in one of Bristol's most deprived areas as bills rise and benefits are cut
And, of 460 people who filled our survey, 84 per cent said they had noticed food prices going up.
People said they had seen the cost of all products go up and particularly meat, vegetables and fruit.
Similarly, 84 per cent of respondents said their bills had got more expensive as we approach Winter and some said they had seen their bills go up by as much as £100.
One person wrote how a family member working up to 70 hours a week has no money left after paying bills and buying essential foods, adding they "worked hard for nothing".
The person wrote they were having to live on a medical pension of £350 per month for two adults and described things as a "sad world".
Another person wrote how the removal of the £20-a-week uplift of universal credit would make things more difficult for them at a time when they were already struggling to keep on top of bills.
"It will affect how much heating I can use this winter and/or how many meals I will have to go without to pay for it," wrote another about the benefit cut.
This comes in the context of Bristol having 41 areas in the most deprived 10 per cent in England, according to the latest data from the council, including three in the most deprived one per cent.
A total of 70,800 people - 15 per cent of residents in Bristol - live in these most deprived areas.
Figures also show that, in Bristol, 15,400 children under the age of 16 live in relative low-income families and that 19,600 households were estimated to experience fuel poverty in Bristol in 2018, which is 9.8 per cent of the city's households.
Among others, so far in our campaign we have spoken to a food bank manager who said they were expecting to be "very tough" this Winter, while a Bristol charity said it was having to turn people away due to the high levels of demand.
If you would like to be featured, or know any organisation we should include, you can contact our reporter directly on estel.farellroig@reachplc.com
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