We want to hear from you about how the cost-of-living crisis is affecting you day-to-day, and any impact it’s having on how you manage your diabetes or access support. That way, we can make sure that we have a full picture of what people with diabetes need right now and can support you through the crisis in a way that suits you best.
Last week, inflation hit a 40-year high of 10.1% and the government announced that the Energy Price Guarantee would come to an end next April. This is against the backdrop of a wider cost-of-living crisis, which we know won’t be felt equally – and that includes for the 4.9 million people in the UK living with diabetes.
By filling in our survey, you can tell us how you are impacted by the cost of living, help direct our response and help us to provide people living with and at risk of diabetes with the help and support they need.
How is the cost-of-living crisis affecting people with diabetes?
We are all being impacted by the cost of living going up. But some of us will be hit deeper than others. For people with diabetes it brings its own specific risks and challenges.
We know that the cost-of-living crisis is really impacting people who are disabled or who have long-term health conditions – including people with diabetes. This group of people is more likely to struggle with their budget because of energy price rises, and they’re more likely to seek help for issues related to the cost of living than people who don’t have a disability or long-term health condition.
One of the reasons for this is what the charity Scope calls the ‘disability price tag’, which means that people often face extra costs and have to spend more in the first place to manage a health condition. For people with diabetes, this might mean needing to use more energy to stay warm because of circulatory problems, having to travel to appointments, buying specialist food, or self-funding glucose monitoring technology. As prices rise, the impact of this can mean people start with less money to spend or in their savings, they have more costs as the prices for things they need to manage their diabetes go up, and they may have to cut back on essentials like hypo treatments and self-funded tech.
Diabetes doesn’t affect everyone equally. Social factors that affect health, like poverty, mean that many people with type 2 diabetes will be particularly vulnerable to rising costs.
The prevalence of type 2 diabetes is over twice as high for people living in the lowest income households compared to those on the highest incomes. People from Black and ethnic minority backgrounds, who are more likely to be experiencing poverty and experience it on a worse level than White people, are also more likely to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. These inequalities mean that people with type 2 diabetes may find it particularly hard to manage rising costs and be more likely to be forced to cut back and make difficult decisions, potentially risking their health in the process.
We know how important food is for managing diabetes. But right now, one in seven people across the UK are going without food or skipping meals, and two in five people are cutting back on food spending.
At the same time, more than half of people are cutting back on heating, hot water, or electricity. There is a risk that people with diabetes are being left with an impossible choice between food and energy – with potentially serious health repercussions no matter what sacrifice is made.
We need to know if people with diabetes are cutting back on food to afford energy bills or to keep a prepayment meter topped up, for instance because otherwise they’d have no way of powering the fridge where their insulin is kept. Or even having their energy supply disconnected or switching off the fridge to save money and being left without useable insulin.
And given how important healthy, affordable food is in managing diabetes, we are also concerned about how the cost-of-living crisis might impact what people with diabetes eat, and how often. The increasing cost of groceries may leave people with diabetes with no choice but to prioritise food that is unhealthy but affordable, rather than more expensive, healthy food or food that better meets their needs. People might also be eating less regularly than they need tor or relying on food banks.
How you can help
We want to hear about how the cost of living is impacting you, whether that’s how you’re managing your diabetes with medication, whether you’re able to attend appointments, how you’ve been impacted by rising energy costs, or your ability to access the food that you need. We need to hear your stories to make sure we have a full picture of how people with diabetes are being affected, and what you need from us. We’ll use these to make sure we're championing people who live with diabetes during this time, and to make sure you have the support and resources that you need.
You can do this by filling out our short, anonymous survey.
Diabetes is relentless but together, so are we.
If you need further support with the cost-of-living crisis, you can visit our cost of living support page for advice and resources.
Our helpline is always here to chat – you can call them on 0345 123 2399 or email helpline@diabetes.org.uk
