Lela (32) suffers with health issues which began suddenly when she was a teenager. She and her 11 year old daughter have lived in a one bedroom flat since December after Camden rehoused them following problems with a neighbour.
Lela says she accepted the one bedroom flat as she was desperate although she now has to sleep on the sofa.
“I’ve been in this situation for a while so I’m trying to stabilise my finances,” she says. But rising energy costs don’t make this easy. She has a £500 bill for gas and electricity from the winter which she’s paying off in instalments. She is using the hot water once or twice a day and then switching it off. She gets cold as she’s not using the heating.
“Universal Credit just gets you by,” she says “but it’s hard to manage. I can’t afford snacks so I’m hungry a lot of the time.”