So, I have had to pay the council to remove 2 large items and they say ts going to take up to 12 week to take it due to hot weather. I am the one paying council tax! So one week of nice weather and it's going to take around 12 WEEKS.

Oh I've been so excited for warm weather but then illness means I miss everything. Gutted. Of all the plans I had these last few weeks I've only managed 3. And having to find the energy to fight for my legal rights as a disabled person with council housing is what's leading to me being so flared and unwell of late. *Stress is not good for dynamic disabilities" is an understatement and I'm not doing well. I feel horrible for all the hundreds and thousands of disabled folk who don't understand why local authorities and landlords or drs are so unkind or seemingly maliciously ignorant, most blame themselves. It's so unfair. Get a diagnosis and you're meant to be able to then access supportive services, instead you get treated lesser than and have less rights and protections and higher risk of abuse cos no one listens to you,.the message told between the carefully written (to avoid overtly identifiable discrimination) lines is "you're not as good as working persons so we don't have to care about you only ourselves". It's a joke.

I’ve now nearly 2 teens. The youngest has Arfrid and it’s so difficult getting him to eat at the best of times. Summer scares me as I just feel he doesn’t get enough goodness and when the school dinners are removed for 9 weeks then I know how much this struggle is going to be. Since moving to secondary school I was so impressed with the school's range and selection of food. He gets £3.20 per day from the government towards his food and anything extra I pay for. Yesterday he told me he got yummy chicken pasta and he even ate the pasta and sauce mixed which is unheard of as he likes everything separated. I just know that he is eating well in school but come summer I worry sick that won’t be the case and it will be my fault. I'm just baffled as to how food can be so expensive and yet the government are doing nothing to increase people’s benefits or wages.

As summer quietly approaches I stand in the house and try to breathe. Our summers are very long. Longer than England. They are 9 weeks and they terrify me. I saw an ad yesterday and the slogan was ‘it’s cheaper to be fat’, the woman speaking was explaining how expensive decent good food is. How a Caesar sandwich and a cold beverage cost her £13 but 2 kids meals with extras in KFC cost the same price. This shocked her and me listening to it. She said she would have chosen the unhealthy meals for her children to save money as 2 of those nice sandwiches would have cost her double at £26. It’s terrible that families including my own are out there struggling with rising food costs and worried about summer because food is just so dear. Our children are not growing up in a nutritious world because those on the poverty line can’t afford it. It’s as plain and simple as that.

I have put huge amounts of time and emotional energy into engaging with the Department for Education via Changing Realities over the last 18 months. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to share my story with key decision makers and be a part of the strong, passionate SEND Parent Community within CR.

I feel completely disgusted at the Department for Education’s latest PR campaign. I am not alone judging by the responses of my colleagues in the SEND community on Social Media. Despite engaging with many organisations and individuals who speak with lived experience such as ourselves - The DfE have failed to comprehend our reality. £90 million pounds! As a solo parent living on benefits I can’t even comprehend this figure. I’m so angry and let down.

I will be stepping down from my involvement in this campaign. I will remain a proud parent participant of Changing Realities and will continue to be involved in other campaigns - current and in the future but Bridget - We’re done! My son needs me. He is transitioning schools this year and I’m focusing my limited resources on fully supporting him through the tricky months ahead. To my fellow SEND mums and dads - You are incredible.

I just saw an article in the paper that more children are living in poverty even with all the adults at home work. I feel that conditions really are getting harder. It also stated that children in single parent families are twice as likely to be in poverty. Everything is so expensive, work doesn't give enough to cover basic living costs and any support from benefits is so complicated and full of trip hazards that it's not the answer either. Food shopping is crazy right now. I can no longer do a proper shop. You rarely see anyone doing this in supermarkets any more. When you do see someone with a full big trolley it looks unusual. I also feel like the quality of what we buy is going down. My rent is crazy. All my money goes on rent. I haven't had heating for months. I live in the middle of nowhere so have to keep a car. Where we live there is a sudden increase in speed cameras. Some of the ways they are being used is evolving. People have had a ticket for being a couple mph over the speed limit as they slow down and go from a 50 to a 30. It is a money raising exercise for a poor county. I think we have more of this than other places so that we also catch tourists on holiday, but local people are struggling with it. Life is structurally so hard right now. I feel like the government doesn't care. Why aren't they acting?

Make sure you drink water drink water drink water, live a healthy lifestyle, eat healthy and mind your business

TW: mention of suicide

Yesterday I was reminded that just one bit of post can bring you trembling to your knees. It can trigger decades of trauma, waiting for the knock at the door that will destroy it all. The sudden urge to hide behind the sofa when there is a knock at the door. To ignore calls that are relentless and frightening. I haven't experienced this feeling for a while but reading these words just sent me spiraling into the past. "Dear Mrs *****, You must pay what you owe us immediately, a charge has been added to your account for late payment and this will affect your credit rating." This caused me to lose all control of my sanity. How are we here again? We fought so hard to get away from letters like this. The panic had set in and I couldn't read anymore. I couldn't even see my mind in a panic and my eyes no longer able to focus! I wish companies knew what this does to people who have nothing else to give. It feels like the end of the world. After a very long soak in the bath, all the time wandering if I had finally used up the last of the heating oil in an attempt to survive this familiar panic I finally read the letter. Wow! I just burst into laughter, not happy laughter but the kind that says how can people have so much power that they can destroy you with 1 or 2 sentences. "Dear Mrs *****, You must pay what you owe us immediately, a charge has been added to your account for late payment and this will affect your credit rating." "You need to pay £0.00 immediately. If you do not pay the £0.00 owed to us we will have to take further action and restrict your account from any further purchases." OK so you have just collapsed my entire world, taken me back into years of poverty trauma to inform me that I owe you £0.00. Did you think I just needed a little threat to keep me awake or something? What was the point of that letter other than to torture me? Having spoken to someone I was informed they were very sorry it was a computer error and I should not have recieved it. Error or not is it OK to send financially vulnerable people threatening letters that cause trauma and will affect them 'FOREVER'. Why is it ok to try to scare people instead of offering a helping hand or some advice. The government claim that they are trying to help people stuck in poverty. Or makes me wander if the solution is to make poor people so depressed that they kill themselves and take away the problem. Even that doesn't take it away. We are all struggling with debt, it's impossible to ever get out of it. I was hoping to get a bit of extra money this week with the third child element being abolished but it's still only showing I'm getting for 2 children only. So tired of false promises and financial bullying.

Definitely feeling the pinch, car insurance is due and although I've added another year no claims its gone up £120 to last year

I'm disgusted.

What is the point of paying for car insurance if not to be legally covered in the event of accident or theft.

I had a woman driver scrape and dent the wheel arch of my car at a petrol station last week while I was inside the store paying for petrol. She didn't bother to stop to look out for the owner, so she could exchange driver's details. She simply left the scene.

Upon returning to my vehicle, I was met with a large chalky mark on my car and a witness all too happy to share his details with me informing me that he heard the collision loud and clear. And that there would, without a doubt, be cctv footage of the incident available from the owners of the petrol station.

After speaking to the insurers today, it seems my car is only fit to be written off according to them, due to its age. In insurance terms, it's, "uneconomical to repair" .

So that'll leave me out of pocket by more than I can stomach from my bank account. Alternatively, I can get an estimate for the repair work from a garage of my choosing that the insurance company is happy to approve payment for, but will forfeit £200, for doing so again leaving me out of pocket, or option three is, have the salvage company assess my car's worth then buy it back from the insurance company, despite it being classed as a category N or some other code word, stamped as such on every future document, then need to re register the car with the DVLA, again leaving me out of pocket from the commotion of it all, or finally I could simply cancel my claim against the offending driver and live with the cosmetic damage, possibly spray paint it or buff the marks out with help from a friend, family member or someone willing. Then look to sell it for less, at a later date in time, also, leaving me out of pocket. All while the culprit gets away without having to pay for the consequences of her actions.

Again, forever the underdog in this situation. Poor people can't get a decent helping hand in life. Or seek any real justice from these events.

Feeling a bit sad and grumpy about the whole patriarchy stuff coming up in social media. In a way it's validating, as women assess life choices that meant they gave away their resources, they realise that lots of it is structural. Becoming a single parent was such a disaster for me financially that I have not recovered from it. I saw reels of older women telling younger women to not get married and not have children as no matter how good you think your partnership is, if they leave you, you are left with children and a precarious financial scenario making it harder to work and have a career. A women said, I obviously love my children but having them and getting married definitely made my life so much harder. I agree. Having children made me so much more vulnerable. I thought everything would be shared, I thought we could both be part time at work to care for them and he just said no. I think Gen X women thought things were more advanced and more fair than they actually were. I can understand why younger women do not always want this for themselves. Men are not always safe to be vulnerable with.

Summer is now approaching fast, which is good news as far as the need to keep warm without the worry of heating bills, however the cost of living is still increasing with food prices and other expenses rising sharply. Living on legacy benefits which do not increase each year means this summer will mean even more cutbacks and hardship to my already very simple and basic life.