500+ postcards sent to Sir Keir Starmer to call for lived experience to be at the heart of ending poverty

Poverty denies people chances and produces health inequalities. It opens people up to abuse and vulnerability.

As a community mental health nurse, I see the impact of poverty in EVERY service user in my area. It impacts all aspects of wellbeing and prevents recovery.

People can’t fulfil their true potential when held back by worrying whether they have a roof over their heads of can feed their children.

I’ve lived in poverty when I was a young boy. My mother and father struggled, and now parents have to work even harder once again. Government are sitting back and not rectifying the issues.

I am struggling with rent prices and unemployment, both issues that should be much less pressuring in this century as a leaving student. I am lucky I have this support but others aren’t as fortunate as me and are suffering in more severe ways than me, so for the sake of everyone who’s in severe conditions, do something.

The local conditions of some communities is desperate, with many families having to choose between heating and eating, sending kids to school hungry. The food banks are always running out of food in Rochdale and Heywood, Lancs.

So much more can be done! Rents are too much, especially when on low income. No one should have to choose between food and heating just to keep a roof over their heads.

Every child from every background deserves to thrive in education, health and life. Those who live in poverty have lower literacy levels and shorter life expectancy. This must end.

My friends and church community are struggling. Thank you for listening and for all that you do to help – please keep listening and helping.

We can’t live like this anymore! We’re barely surviving!

Oh the heartbreak of seeing hungry children unable to concentrate at school.

I have seen the anguish and distress the impact of poverty has on people’s lives. Working at my local Foodbank has made me aware of the numbers of families in distress because of poverty.

I volunteer in a Foodbank. Our clients often say a tearful ‘thank you’ for the food parcels. They shouldn’t have to be grateful for food…a basic necessity of life.

I work for/volunteer for our local social supermarket (we work with people over a longer period to support them out of poverty). In an ideal world, my job would not exist! Yet despite various ‘schemes’, projects and short term interventions, we are not seeing a reduction in the desperate need in the area we cover. This is not a strong Britain that we can be proud of.

I work in a school where some children do not have enough to eat at home. I work in a Foodbank where someone had to use her full months Gov money to pay a heat bill so had to use a Foodbank.

We have seen that it is causing division in society in the recent riots, and because it’s just unfair. I work for a community project that supports people in poverty – we should not exist but we can’t keep up with the demand. These are people who are valuable, worthy and human.

Children are suffering in my community and family because of the two child cap. It’s very cruel to punish innocent children. They are our future!

By ending poverty, we are changing lives of millions of people and we are bringing a smile in their face.

It gives people dignity and self-respect.