The Glasgow Times has challenged the UK and Scottish governments to do more to help people in the city cope with the cost of living crisis.
Last week we started a Beat the Squeeze series, highlighting the cost of living issues faced by people in our city.
We have been speaking to people young and old, in work and out of work, and businesses and charities who have told us about the scale of the pressures facing household budgets and the urgency of the problem.
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We spoke to a student paramedic who is left with £36 a week to live on after his rent and bills.
We heard how a disabled university graduate is unable to afford enough food because her payments don’t meet all her bills and debt repayments.
And we spoke to Sara Capaldi of Partenope Café in Shawlands who said her costs are rising with energy bills and National Insurance contributions and she fears the income squeeze will affect trade.
Danielle Ferguson, of Flawless beauty salon, in Tollcross, also said her energy bill has doubled but fears a drop in customers.
People are worried about stagnating incomes, the increased cost of food in the supermarkets, the rising cost of home energy and petrol and the cost of travel increasing.
READ MORE: Glasgow residents share money worries as cost of living bites
In short, they are worried about the cost of every essential spend going up to unaffordable levels.
We asked the UK Government what it is doing to help people
Those already in poverty, those on the lowest incomes, and those who are seeing their standards of living decline and who fear they are being pushed towards poverty or to higher debt to maintain standards?
As people are still facing hardship in the months to come, we asked what further measures are proposed to help when costs rise further, if as predicted by all the economic experts, inflationary pressures continue to push up prices even higher?
We put the following questions to the UK Government.
Can pensioners be guaranteed the triple lock will be restored in 2023?
READ MORE: Beat the Squeeze: Why are energy prices going up?
Can workers be assured the National Insurance rise will only be for one year?
Can people on benefits expect to see an uplift of more than 3.1% when inflation is around double that?
We asked will the government consider lifting the benefits cap, as requested by a group of charities led by Poverty Alliance.
We wanted to know if it will it increase the level of Universal Credit payments that people repeatedly tell us is not enough to cover the basic essentials?
We also asked the Scottish Government what more it intends to do using the devolved powers at its disposal.
In addition, we asked will the Scottish Government consider increasing the Scottish Child Payment further from the £25it has announced?
We wanted to know if local authorities, like Glasgow City Council, struggling to maintain services, will be allocated more funding to pay for initiatives in communities to help.
And we asked can small businesses expect any further support to maintain employment levels and continue trading.
Tomorrow we will publish the responses from the Westminster and Holyrood governments on what they say they are already doing and what they plan to do in the future.
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