“April Cruel Day”. “Awful April.”... just some of the names given to the 1st of April this year as rent, council tax, energy, broadband, and phone bills all hiked on the same day.

The devastating relentlessness of increase after increase – where basic everyday living costs like council tax, energy, rent are all increasing – the essentials are so out of reach for many people.

Like many charity folks, I was invited to comment on the impact on people across Scotland. A few minutes into one radio interview, and we get to the inevitable question: “What can people do?”

Framing that in terms of individual choices misses the point. It risks perpetuating blame on the choices that individuals or households can make, when these choices are increasingly impossible.

For us, though, that fails to do justice to the reality........

© Herald Scotland