Desperate parents are stealing baby formula because they can't afford to buy it, warns FIONA MCCULLOCH of York Citizens Advice

LAST week, in a rather nice market town in North Yorkshire, I went into two well known supermarkets. In the first, I was held up in the self-service section as the assistant was struggling to get the security tag removed from a tub of baby formula.

Baby formula?! Yes, things are now getting so desperate that parents are stealing formula as they cannot afford to buy it. Also, it’s expensive and therefore this means it has a high resale value on the street. There are many associated risks with this, the worst being it could be resold in a poor or inedible condition.

The second store was even more depressing. At another self-service desk, I asked an assistant to take off a security tag on a bottle of laundry detergent, only to be told “Don’t worry, they’re fake, there’s new types of people stealing now and they don’t know the difference and this scares them”.

It’s not the only surprising security tagging, I’ve seen tags on cheese, butter, fruit, fish and meat too.

So, we have rapidly reached the situation where usually law-abiding and honest people are being forced into criminal behaviour simply to feed infants and wash clothes. And this is before the next big hike in energy bills hits the population.

The supermarkets are trying to do their bit. Several, including one of our more upmarket food sellers, are offering free meals for children when adults buy a meal. But you have to be able to afford to buy an expensive pre-made sandwich or snack first and should the private sector be trying to feed children during school holidays?

I ask the question generally of all of us. We are a first world country in 2022, we have a welfare state and a national health service yet our citizens need charity to feed their children.

It’s both demoralising and dehumanising and this is how societies begin to disintegrate. York Food bank is running short of basics such as tinned goods, powdered and UHT milk, instant mash and laundry and other cleaning supplies. They don’t give out baby formula so, if you’re able to donate please don’t donate this

On the subject of usually law-abiding people committing criminal acts, I was asked by local ITV news last week to do a piece on 'ghost broking' - this is where people buy (usually) car insurance from Twitter or Instagram adverts and find that it’s a scam and it was fake insurance sold by fake brokers.

This leaves them open to criminal convictions if they are involved in accidents or picked up by police cameras as not being insured. People aged between 18 and 24 are the most commonly targeted in these scams. The pressures on finances are causing people to take risks in the hope of saving money, but the spiral is that they will be worse off, as we all will be when insurance companies raise rates generally to cover uninsured drivers.

The overarching point for me in all of this is that we are really all in it together. This is now not a problem for 'someone else' or 'people on benefits' or people in 'low paid jobs'.

Come autumn, anyone on the average UK salary or lower is likely to be in fuel poverty. As the average salary is currently over £31,000 per year this is a shocking figure.

There is a lot of talk at the moment of 'civil disobedience' and people just refusing to pay energy bills.

This has the potential of causing even more unwelcome contact with courts and the law. If you can’t afford to pay for things, or are worried about not being able to pay for things in the future, please come and talk to us first. We may not have all the solutions to your finances straight away, but we can discuss plans and strategies to help you manage better.

If you are already in debt we can help with this and offer you a range of solutions. If you do find yourself in legal difficulties already we can help you explore suitable pathways to resolve this.

Please don’t worry alone, talking helps.

You can contact us on 0808 278 7895, this can get busy at peak times but it’s a Freephone number from UK landlines and mobiles. Or you can request a call back or email advice by following the links on our website - citizensadviceyork.org.uk/advice/

We have the option for you to see someone face to face as well in many venues around the city, so if this is your preferred option call us for an appointment.

Citizens Advice York is a charity, it is through donations we are able to provide this vital service for people in need, we are grateful for your ongoing support.

Fiona McCulloch is chief executive of York Citizens Advice