It Shouldn’t Be Like This: Full-Time Workers in Cannock Chase Rely on Food Handouts Amid Cost of Living Crisis

Published: 11 August 2025. The English Chronicle Desk

In Cannock Chase, a community once reflecting the middle-class aspirations of Britain, a growing number of full-time workers are struggling to make ends meet, forced to rely on food handouts despite holding steady jobs. This unsettling reality casts a stark light on the profound effects of the ongoing cost of living crisis, upending expectations that hard work and dedication would secure financial stability and a comfortable life.

Rebecca, an office manager for a day service supporting people with learning difficulties, exemplifies this struggle. Despite juggling a second job selling cosmetics and homeware door-to-door during evenings and weekends, she finds herself caught in an unrelenting cycle of financial hardship. “There’s nothing more I can do. Unless I win the lottery or get another job,” she reflects, voicing a plea for local authorities to understand the realities faced by working families. “It’s 2025. It shouldn’t be like this.”

Rebecca’s experience is far from isolated. Alex Chapman, co-founder of the Norton Canes Community Food Table, reveals that approximately one-third of those seeking assistance are full-time workers. He highlights the paradox of professionals, nurses, and other employees in recognizable work attire relying on charitable food provision. “It’s mad that you’re working a good job and you think you’d be able to afford everything… but in reality, they’re struggling to put food on the table,” Chapman explains. This trend, he notes, is growing across the board, blurring traditional assumptions about who faces economic vulnerability.

Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) corroborates this lived reality. While in 2021 Cannock Chase’s average annual salary mirrored the national UK average of nearly £26,000, the gap has since widened significantly. National wages have increased by over 21% to keep pace with inflation, yet local salaries have risen by just 8.4%, leaving workers in Cannock Chase roughly £300 worse off per month compared to their counterparts elsewhere in the UK.

Louise Schwartz, a mother of two and self-described middle-class professional, embodies the tensions wrought by this shift. After two decades as a teacher, she now balances three jobs—including private music lessons and work at a software firm—while her husband works as an estate agent. Earning around £80,000 combined annually, they maintain a mortgage and own three cars, yet have had to sacrifice luxuries such as family holidays and costly hobbies. “It makes me feel sad for my kids… we can’t give them a week away,” she admits, underscoring how even relatively comfortable incomes no longer guarantee a lifestyle once taken for granted.

Louise’s family has also cut back on everyday expenses, opting for discounted brands and limiting energy consumption despite owning a hot tub that now rarely sees use. “I think people might not be surprised by that because I think people are probably in a similar position but maybe we just don’t talk about it,” she reflects, touching on the quiet endurance many endure in the face of financial strain.

The erosion of “pleasure money,” or discretionary income, is a recurring theme. Heidi Boot, a full-time small business owner running an aesthetics salon, observes a pattern of clients stretching appointments and tightening budgets. “People are working so hard for their money and they’ve got nothing to show for it,” she says, lamenting that what once seemed exceptional hardship is now becoming normalized.

The situation in Cannock Chase offers a window into a broader national struggle. As inflation continues to rise and wage growth falters in certain areas, the expectation that full-time work secures financial comfort is being challenged. For many, like Rebecca, Louise, and Heidi, the promise of prosperity remains elusive, demanding urgent attention from policymakers and communities alike.

As the cost of living crisis deepens, stories like these underscore the urgent need for solutions that restore security, dignity, and hope to those striving to build a better life through honest work.