County Councillor Trish Pemberton has described her recent experience of trying to ‘live life in the footsteps of a care leaver’ as “worthwhile but very challenging.” She told members of Newton Aycliffe Rotary Club this week: “I’d challenge anyone to find it easy to live on £57.90 per week, the amount a care leaver receives.” Trish and her partner, John Wilson (pictured) are both members of the club and decided to take the Care Leavers’ Challenge to discover for themselves how hard life could be for a young person with so little cash every week. Their verdict: “It’s a bit unrealistic to expect young people to cope”.
Trish, a Shildon councillor, former residential social worker and teacher at Aycliffe Young People’s Centre, told club members: “At first, £57.90 seemed quite a lot of money but after deducting recommended amounts for electricity and water bills, television licence, mobile phone and bus fares, I found I had just £13.10 to pay for food and everything else”. The challenge didn’t end there. Trish had been warned to expect a brown envelope surprise during the week – and it arrived with a demand to sign on at the Job centre which cost her £4.80 in bus fare. If she didn’t turn up, it was made clear, she would be sanctioned and her money would have been stopped for several weeks.
By buying the cheapest foods and goods near the end of their best-before date, using local food banks and reducing meal portions, Trish thought she and John might survive the week. They didn’t. With two days to go, Trish had only a few pence in her purse. Then John received his little brown envelope containing a £5 windfall. Said Trish: “We spent five minutes or so just trying to decide how we might spend it. We were so excited.” Their delight was shortlived. The heating boiler then broke down and, under real conditions, they would have been unable to get it repaired.
A meeting is to be held shortly with all the people who took part in the challenge to identify what more could be done to help young people leaving care. “We have learned quite a lot but there is still much more to do if we are to make a difference,” said Trish. Rtn. Geoff Knapton welcomed Trish and John to the meeting and they were thanked by president-elect Rtn. Tony Robinson.
