Carlisle is 'sleepwalking into a massive crisis' after Covid-19

But with that first-hand experience, she has been left convinced the city is heading for a truly frightening time, as the true economic effects of the pandemic take hold.

After setting up the Carlisle Covid-19 Community Help Group as the coronavirus crisis gathered pace, Lisa and her fellow volunteers have been there to provide emergency assistance to those who have been left without the means to put food on the table for themselves and their families.

One of the group’s key regular tasks has become providing “school lunch” parcels to families who, for a variety of reasons, have fallen between the cracks of eligibility for other sources of support.

With the weekly number of school lunch deliveries made by the group set to rise to 600 next week, Lisa, who is also a Labour Party Carlisle City Councillor, is under no illusions that the economic effects of Covid-19 on families in Carlisle is set to do anything but increase in intensity.

“We are helping some people who are on Universal Credit, but a lot of the people we are helping are those who have been furloughed, those who are only getting 80 per cent of their wages,” Lisa said.

New figures released this week show that 14,100 jobs have been furloughed across Carlisle during the pandemic, which represents 33 per cent of the total workforce.

With the furlough scheme set to end in October, analysts are now looking to the longer-term impacts of the coronavirus outbreak on the economy.

Their findings make for a sobering read.

A new report released last week by the Social Market Foundation calculated that east Cumbria, of which Carlisle is a part, is likely to be, in the medium term, one of the hardest-hit regions in the country economically, with 71 per cent of its jobs in sectors which will be moderately or severely impacted by Covid-19.

Lisa said the Carlisle community help group is full expecting to be needed for many more months to come, as the true economic impacts of Covid-19 set in.

“We know that all sectors have been hit, but there are some sectors in Carlisle that have been hit harder than others,” Lisa said.

“Arts, retail, leisure - we've got a lot of that in Carlisle."

Figures from last month show that the unemployment rate in Cumbria rose from 2.3 per cent to 4.9 per cent – though this rise is at the moment below the national average, though it is possible the higher rate of furlough seen across Cumbria has delayed larger-scale layoffs that may be set to arrive later in the year.

However, Lisa said statistics can only tell half a story, and stressed that there are families across Carlisle facing terrifying levels of uncertainty and disruption in the wake of Covid-19.

“One of the families who came to us, the dad was a driver,” Lisa said.

“The firm he was at adjusted their work practices, and they didn't need him anymore so he got laid off.

“Another family, the dad worked in a van, and because they could no longer have two people in a van at once, they just laid him off.

“We're seeing a lot of people who have always just about managed to get by, who haven't ever necessarily had to rely on benefits, but they're by no means wealthy.

“But they've just suddenly found themselves in this situation where they needed to get help.

“Everything is very complicated, and sometimes people don't know exactly where to turn.”

Lisa said she felt the Government has focused on helping keep businesses afloat, and has treated children and families as an “afterthought.

“We have huge schemes for bailing out businesses and keeping people in employment,” Lisa said.

“The amount of money that's been spent across the economy I don't think has been spent evenly.

“It's been biased towards the bigger businesses, less so towards smaller businesses and the self-employed.

“I don't think kids came into the equation at all.

“I think in some cases the sense of community spirit has stepped in into this gap. People have noticed this, and felt supported.

“It's a shame this didn't come from the Government.

"But at the same time, there's a sense of exasperation of having to rely on a charity for food.

“It's not right.

“Parents are terrified of being judged as reckless for finding themselves in difficult situations.

“But these are people who are doing their absolute utmost, just to keep their heads above water.

“There's a sense of exasperation, and a fear at the thought that they are not able to look after their children.”

And because of the pressing potential that the economy will fail to bounce back, Lisa is afraid of what is round the corner.

“I think we're sleepwalking into a massive crisis,” she said.

“We've got people still not back in work.

“We've got loads of bars, pubs, shops, hotels, tourism and leisure venues in Carlisle.

“A lot of the work in these places pays quite low wages.

“Not everywhere is open, staff are reduced because places can't accommodate as many customers as normal.

“I know the Government is trying to encourage the retention of more staff with the £1,000 bonus, but that is only going to go so far in encouraging staff to be kept on.

“Come January let’s say, if shops are not going to need the same levels of staff as they needed before the pandemic, they are not going to keep them on.

“That’s just the reality of how it works.”

Lisa said the group is resolved to continue providing support, far beyond the end of the immediate Covid-19 crisis.

“We will be ready. We are expecting a rise in people needing help,” she said.

“Within the community groups, we’ve had our eye on the medium-term situation for a while.”

She added one of the biggest challenges that the group will have to overcome will be making sure that everyone who needs help is made aware that help is available.

“People so often do not know that there is help out there for them.

“We’ve got to make sure that we catch people early.

“We shouldn’t have to, I do believe there shouldn’t have to be such a thing as food banks in the first place.

"But we will be there.

“We just hope we can reach everybody, and there is nobody left struggling when they really don’t need to be.”

So far, the group has spent about £120,000 on food parcels, funded in part by Cumbria County Council, in part by national Government and in part by charitable donations.

She explained that the group is mainly finding itself helping those who do not quite meet the criteria for support from other sources.

Sometimes, Lisa explained, people are simply overwhelmed by the complexity of what is and is not available to them.

And this had been made more difficult by the unwieldy nature of some of the help put in place.

“The Government announced they were going to give every child £15 a week as a top-up, but schools weren't able to access this for a while, there was problems either downloading what was needed or activating it.

“There was a real influx of people falling through the gaps.

“Some people certainly hadn't applied for school meals because they hadn't realised that they could, or perhaps there were delays in accessing Universal Credit.

“There seemed to have been a whole mixture of different systems crashing.”

One prospect the group will be exploring in the near future is providing affordable food, rather than solely. free food parcels.

“We’re looking at an affordable food model.

“It’s not sustainable to give free food parcels permanently, and people want to be independent.

“We want people to feel like they can maintain their dignity.

“It’s horrible to thing that people feel judged. No one should have to feel judged or ashamed for reaching out for help if they need it, but unfortunately that is how a lot of people are made to feel.

“So if we can also start to offer a slightly different, more sustainable model where people could perhaps pay a few pounds a week for a few weeks to get the food they need, then we would be keen to take that forward.”