‘I keep in mind going to highschool in skinny cardigan shivering – yearly it is a difficulty’
‘I remember going to school in a thin cardigan shivering. As you get older the coats get more expensive. The last few years we’ve had coats from charity shops,’ Scarlet said
A teenager whose mum is disabled and dad is her full-time carer said she has memories of going to school “shivering” in a thin cardigan.
Scarlet, 17, who lives with her siblings and parents in Plymouth, said her family rely on charity shop coats and hand me downs to keep warm.
She said: “Every year it’s an issue that we don’t have winter coats – because we grow, because we’re young, and because we don’t have many, they get worn constantly, so they get worn out.
“I remember going to school in a thin cardigan shivering. As you get older the coats get more expensive. The last few years we’ve had coats from charity shops. We’ve had loads of hands me downs from my older sister. My younger sister gets all my hands me downs. They get tattier and tattier as they get handed down.
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“Last winter was really difficult for heating our home. My mum is disabled and she gets a lot worse in the cold. We had to keep our heating up more than we usually would. We have loads of mould in the house – we also have cracks in the loft that are blowing in cold air down.
“My family and I have used food banks. I volunteered at a food bank in 2023 to 2024. If you go to those kinds of places, you realise how much worse it can be.”
Scarlet is being supported by Barnardo’s and attends cooking sessions where she learns to cook affordable, nutritious meals which she can take home to her family.
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One in seven parents ‘will struggle to afford a coat for kids this winter’
One in seven parents say they will struggle to afford a coat or clothing to keep their child warm this winter, research shows.
Children’s charity Barnardo’s believes there could be some 300,000 children in the UK without a winter coat. YouGov polling for the charity found around one in seven parents in the UK (15%) say they will struggle to buy warm clothing that will keep their child or children warm as temperatures drop.
One in 50 children in the UK (2%) aged six to 15 say they do not have a winter coat, according to the survey. Meanwhile around one in eight (12%) who do have a coat are worried that it won’t keep them warm this winter.
The study comes as the UK Health Security Agency on Monday issued an amber Cold-Health Alert for parts of England as temperatures plummet this week. Between November 2024 and February 2025, half of those to receive support from Barnardo’s child poverty fund were related to clothing.
One example included a mum and her two daughters, aged one and three, who had to flee their South Yorkshire home due to domestic abuse. They had to leave all their belongings behind and the girls desperately needed warm coats and clothes.
Dame Helen Mirren, actress and Barnardo’s ambassador, said the situation kids are facing this winter is “heartbreaking”. “When families are living from hand to mouth, as so many families are in the UK even today, it just takes one thing to go wrong, and they can be in a crisis,” she said.
“Parents always try to protect their children and keep them fed and warm. I grew up after the war and for us money was always very, very tight, but I was lucky because my father didn’t get ill and didn’t have to stop working. It’s heartbreaking that so many children will be hungry and cold this winter, and too many families will be dreading the festive season.”
Barnardo’s chief executive Lynn Perry said: “It’s simply not right that across the UK, too many children are facing a harsh winter without the basics they need to stay warm, healthy and hopeful. Behind the sparkle of the festive season we know there will be children worrying about having enough to eat, making do with a coat that’s too small and feeling left out of the celebrations.
“That’s why this winter and all year round, Barnardo’s supports children and their families to keep the power on and the fridge stocked, helping with the essentials to ease some of the worry.” Ms Perry called on the public to donate to Barnardo’s if they can to help the charity to continue to provide vital support to families in need.
::: YouGov surveyed 1,132 parents (of children aged 18 and under) and 1,016 children at the end of October.
