When I was twelve years old, my mum won the lottery.
It was the Irish Lottery, and she only got four numbers, but that didn’t stop us having a weekend like no other.
On Friday night, we went for a double session at the local swimming pool. Usually my mum sat in the spectator area but this time, we went to the high street beforehand so she could get a new swimming costume and come in with us.
I was in charge of the pound coins that we’d need for the lockers (which would give us the money back) and the hair dryers (which wouldn’t).
On Saturday, we got the bus to the next biggest town and headed straight to Argos.
My brother and I found a catalogue each and turned every available page.
We usually only got to do this a month before a birthday or Christmas, and always with a budget.
This time, we got to create a list and talk through our choices with my mum.
My brother got a life sized Slinky from Toy Story, which would be twisted beyond repair by the next week.
I got the biggest Stretch Armstrong available, which would be lying in the sink and oozing the goo that was supposed to make it unbreakable by the end of the night.
Pudding, power cards and a place for the Provvy book
On the Sunday, we went out for a sit-down dinner.
On the rare occasions that we went out for a meal, we were usually warned to make the one drink last the whole night.
Free refills didn’t exist at this point and we would have died of shame before the server came back to the table with a glass of tap water.
This time, the warning wasn’t needed and unlike other visits, we were encouraged to look at the starters.
In an incredible turn of events, we even got to look the adult dessert page.
On the way home, we stopped off at the newsagents to buy a stack of Scottish Power cards, which we’d put into our electricity meter over the next couple of weeks.
A week later, my mum’s treat to herself arrived: a glass cabinet that sat atop a chest of drawers.
Our school uniforms went on the bottom part. Ornaments, CDs and the blue Provvy book went in the top part.
That I can recall this weekend, in such vivid memory, tells me that this was money well spent.
Families in poverty will be even worse off
My mum worked three jobs when I was growing up.
She worked in the local factory, taking bottles off a conveyor belt and putting then in cardboard boxes.
She’d then head out to clean in either the Little Chef or the nearby five-star lodges.
There was nothing more my mum could have done to bring more money home.
There is nothing more she could have done to make our lives more secure.
As I reflect on how that weekend is stored as a core memory for me 25 years on, I also feel quite sad.
Going for a swim together, getting a new toy, having enough electricity for the day shouldn’t be luxuries. I want any family to be able to enjoy them, without it being predicated on a low-level lottery win.
And that’s why my heart sank at the news from the Office for Budget Responsibility that living standards are set to fall by 2.2% in 2022-23.
It’s their largest financial year fall on record and they’re not expected to recover until 2024-25.
OBR’s official forecast is that this year real household disposable income per person – or living standards – will fall by more than at any time since serious data was collected. This will be a horrendous year for millions of people pic.twitter.com/po02YzxF8p
— Robert Peston (@Peston) March 23, 2022
My heart fell further when it became clear that the Chancellor was not going to use his spring statement to step up for families who are being pulled into poverty by our broken, unfair economic system.
Never mind activities that bring some joy, they are now going to be going without essentials.
‘It doesn’t have to be like this’
To be blunt, many of us are going to be worse off than we ever remember being.
And it doesn’t have to be like this.
The rich people and the large, profitable corporations who currently avoid tax could be made to pay their fair share.
So many of us are working so hard to stay afloat and play by the rules. We need bold political action to level the playing field.
I wonder if there is a more damning indictment of our choices.
£300,000,000 of profit being made on the back of children in care.
Imagine families could got that money instead of venture capitalists. We can and should move away from this. Fast.https://t.co/9ms6wBYyvb
— Jamie Kinlochan (@JamieKinlochan) March 27, 2022
Knowing that council budgets have been eroded makes it hard to turn our aspirations for our communities into reality. But we should still push candidates and political parties for the innovative solutions that we need.
The local elections in May provide us with an opportunity to set new priorities.
Across Scotland, there are families just trying to get on with their lives.
It was the availability of good quality social housing, the chance to retrain and fair wages for work that helped my family come back to the surface.
We can do that again.
Jamie Kinlochan is a campaigner for social justice and a consultant, working to tell the stories of those who are often unheard.
