Add Category
Eighty-nine-year-old Primrose Brimson keeps warm in her Canberra home by curling up underneath handmade quilts — but she says she has now made her last, with the cost of materials outgrowing her budget.
Key points:
- A peak ACT social services body has handed down a cost of living report which says 10 per cent of Canberra is living in poverty
- The report found petrol prices have risen by 37 per cent and medical services by 25 per cent
- One service provider says women are disproportionately affected by the rise in prices for essentials
The widowed mother-of-two moved to Canberra from England in the 1960s and makes ends meet these days on an aged pension — living a relatively frugal lifestyle.
Having been born in the midst of the Great Depression and growing up during World War II, Ms Brimson said she had been through times where she was unable to afford things before, and she found herself in another now.
"I grew up when people didn't necessarily have fires [to heat their homes]," Ms Brimson said.
"It was in England and coal was rationed. So, unless you were very careful, you didn't have heat.
"I've had times in my life when I could afford things, and times where I can't. And, now, I can't."
A keen quilter, Ms Brimson has learned that a stitch in time saves money, allowing her to reduce spending on her power bills.
"[My quilt] keeps me warm," she said.
"I have a little heater and I just heat the room I'm in.
"I don't heat the bedrooms and things like that."
Ms Brimson said she had been sewing since she was a young girl and had continued it into her later years to keep her mind active.
But she said she had hand-sewn her last large quilt, with the cost of the materials becoming too high.
"I do it by hand, but now they're too big, too expensive."
10 per cent of Canberrans live in poverty: report says
A new report from the ACT Council of Social Service (ACTCOSS) has confirmed many Canberrans are in a similar situation to Ms Brimson.
"Cost of living is higher now than at any point since the Australian Bureau of Statistics began making the relevant calculation in 1999," ACTCOSS chief executive Devin Bowles said.
The report analysed the cost of essentials in the ACT from December 2017 to December 2022, and found a drastic increase.
Petrol prices had risen by 37 per cent; electricity, hospital and medical services by 25 per cent, housing up 21 per cent, education by 20 per cent and food by 18 per cent.
"Canberra is a relatively wealthy community and many people are comparatively able to bear increases in [the] cost of living," Dr Bowles said.
"But our average wealth hides the fact that almost 10 per cent of Canberrans live in poverty.
"People on lower incomes spend a higher proportion of their income on the essentials, which have increased in price so much."
The ACTCOSS report also found women had been disproportionately affected by rising costs of living expenses.
"Women nationally experience poverty at higher rates and are more likely to experience persistent or ongoing poverty," Dr Bowles said.
"Here in the ACT, women are more likely to require and access specialist homelessness services and income supports."
Dr Bowles also said an increase in day-to-day expenses had mounted pressure on community service providers.
"They're [community service providers] seeing a number of clients who have never required assistance before," he said.
'Women are now having to make choices'
Among the providers noting an increase in access to their services is Karinya House, an organisation that supports pregnant women and new mums in crisis.
Karinya House CEO, Lavinia Tyrrel, said Canberra's cost of living crisis had impacted women's ability to provide for themselves and their families.
"Over the last 12 months, we've seen an increase in the number of women referred to us with housing as their primary need," she said.
"These women are now having to make choices between fuel, accommodation, and childcare."
YWCA Canberra chief executive Leah Dwyer said demand had doubled at the organisation's Lanyon food pantry over the past 12 months, with increasing numbers of families "on actual modest wages".
The ACTCOSS report included numerous recommendations to the ACT government, including a trial of free public transport, income-based fines and fees, and an expansion of available concessions.
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr said "some" of the areas mentioned in the report would see funding in next week's territory budget.
"We're looking at both the nature of our concessions and who's eligible," Mr Barr said.
The ACT Budget will be handed down on June 27.