"I was sleeping on the sofa, she had a bed that was propped up on books. One of the legs had fallen off completely." Sarah Ruscoe, a single mum out of work because of a health condition, said she had worried her daughter's bed would collapse in the night after finding herself in a "dire" financial situation. A food bank user, Ruscoe said "every year seems to be getting worse" as she struggled to make her benefits cover essentials.
A charity eventually paid for a new bed for daughter Sabrina, 11. But MPs heard this week that the general picture of one in three children living in relative poverty in Wales had not changed in 20 years, with a think tank saying the problem was becoming entrenched. 'There's so much I want to give my daughter - poverty means I can't' £10-a-week child poverty payment plans faces obstacles, says expert On Wednesday MPs at the UK Parliament's Welsh Affairs Committee opened an inquiry on ending child poverty in Wales. The country has the highest child poverty rate of any UK nation, with 32% of children living in relative poverty after housing costs, according to the latest official statistics.
A child is considered to be in relative poverty if the income of the household they live in is below 60% of the UK median. Evidence was given by charities including Action for Children, who paid for Sabrina's new bed and provides financial support to thousands of low income families in Wales each year. Ruscoe, from Barry, told BBC Wales that three years ago she struggled to afford to replace her daughter's "ropey" bed which had been "second or third hand".
"It was getting a bit distressing," she said, and both mother and daughter had worried it might collapse in the night when Sabrina moved. "I was having difficulty finding somewhere where I could afford one, and also not having the greatest credit rating in the world meant that you had to pay like two or three times what you would have done if you'd just gone into a shop and bought it outright." The cabin bunk and a mattress purchased by Action for Children made a "massive difference", she said. "It meant she had somewhere safe.
We decorated it," Ruscoe said. "Nobody else has slept in it. It's something that's new for her.
"Up until that point it was worry and trying to work out, maybe if I didn't pay this bill maybe I could save some money here, what could I go without, trying to work out which company had the smallest APR on an item that I could afford. "There's not that much out there, especially when they hear you're on benefits." One year the charity also helped the family with a gift card for local supermarkets before Christmas. Ruscoe, who used to work in a job centre, said her chronic pain condition fibromyalgia had left her feeling fatigued and in pain and, when it had flared up, unable to move.
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