Rishi Sunak confronted by worried mum on live radio - 'This doesn't cut it'

Watch: Mum begs Rishi Sunak for help with bills during cost of living crisis

A worried mother has told Rishi Sunak that rising costs have “put an intense strain” on providing for her children and has begged him for more help.

The chancellor set out his plans to help the low-paid and most vulnerable in society during his spring statement on Wednesday.

Sunak announced a 5p cut in fuel duty and an increase in the threshold at which people pay national insurance contributions, benefiting around 30 million workers with a tax cut worth more than £330.

He promised further support in 2024 with a pledge to cut the basic rate of income tax from 20p in the pound to 19p – “a £5 billion tax cut for over 30 million people”.

But with the cost-of-living crisis and the ongoing war in Ukraine, Sunak has been faced with stark realities from some who say his measures do not go for enough.

The mum-of-two from Crawley, told the chancellor during an LBC appearance she was working three jobs in an effort to turn on the lights or heat her home.

Telling Sunak that the support he outlined "just isn't going to cut it”, she said: "Unfortunately the rising costs of everything especially energy have now put an intense strain on my ability to provide for my children.

"The significant increase in our energy bill has meant that we don't have the boiler on.

"The lights are always off unless absolutely necessary and when it's cold we wear jumpers and coats and sometimes you can see our breaths when we breathe.”

The mum said that was cleaning house and delivering for Uber Eats on top of her regular job, adding to Sunak: "I've just about been able to balance things up until this point but I'm now facing paying out more each month than I'm making…

“Please tell me what else you suggest I can be doing to help myself.”

Watch: Spring statement: What it means for your finances

Sunak said he “can’t imagine” the mum's struggles and said the government had introduced an energy price cap, as well as a £350 suppers for energy bills, a £150 council tax rebate and a tax cut on national insurance.

But the caller said the chancellor's response "just isn't relative at all" to rising costs, adding: “You're going to see more and more people relying on food banks, then also not able to afford to work, and you're going to have people in low-income families or families such as myself who may well get very, very ill because they are unable to afford to heat their homes.”

Her comments come as analysis from living standards think tank the Resolution Foundation suggests the lack of support for low-income families in the spring statement leaves 1.3 million Britons on the verge of “absolute poverty”.

Resolution Foundation warned Sunak’s measures represented a “big but poorly targeted policy package” which does not do enough to aid the families who have been hit the hardest by the cost of living crisis.

The think tank added that typical working-age household incomes are set to fall by 4% in real terms next year, while incomes in the poorest quarter of households are expected to fall by 6%.

Meanwhile, a YouGov poll found that 42% of Brits think the measures announced on Wednesday will not benefit them ‘very much’ – compared to 2% who said it will help them a great deal.

The poll also found that nearly a quarter (24%) said the changes would not benefit them at all.

Sunak told LBC that 70% of people would be better off as a result of his changes but warned the country is facing “challenging and uncertain” times after official forecasters predicted the biggest fall in living standards on record.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said higher prices – combined with rising taxes – will “weigh heavily on living standards in the coming 12 months”.

The cost-of-living crisis, driven by fuel and energy prices which were rising even before Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, will be exacerbated in April by the 1.25 percentage point hike in national insurance to fund the NHS and social care.