Hygiene Bank warns working families are struggling to afford essentials

The Hygiene Bank has warned that working families and people who previously felt financially secure are struggling to afford basic hygiene products, in a BBC report from Guildford published on 8 October. Local charities described demand for toiletries, menstrual products and household cleaning supplies during National Hygiene Week.

Rosemary Ashworth, the charity’s deputy chief executive, told BBC Radio Surrey that the profile of people experiencing hygiene poverty had changed. ‘We're at a bit of a tipping point so now feels like the time to do something about it,’ she said.

Her warning brings together accounts of local shortages and national survey findings. Those provide different kinds of evidence: the interviews describe charities’ experience, while the survey measures reported household hardship during an earlier period. Neither establishes how much national prevalence has risen.

Guildford charities describe demand for essentials

Janice Sedgwick, a volunteer at The Hygiene Bank’s Guildford branch, identified toothbrushes, toothpaste, shower gel, shampoo, sanitary pads and laundry detergent among the supplies people needed. She said people were also struggling to obtain products to keep their homes clean, extending the reported need beyond personal toiletries.

Ashworth said those affected included ‘working families’ and ‘people who previously felt financially secure’. The BBC report does not give a count of working households seeking assistance or a breakdown of their incomes. Her comments describe who the charity is encountering rather than the size of that group nationally.

What the hygiene poverty survey measured

According to the BBC report, a survey of 3,042 UK adults for The Hygiene Bank and In Kind Direct found that 18% said they or someone in their household had experienced hygiene poverty in the preceding six months. The result includes experiences of other household members, rather than measuring only respondents personally going without.

The charities also said 41% of those affected had experienced hygiene poverty for the first time that year. That figure refers to the affected group, rather than everyone surveyed. It describes the reported onset of hardship and does not establish a 41% annual increase in hygiene poverty.

Savanta’s methodology dates the survey interviews to 29 May–8 June 2026, with the research release published on 5 October. The six-month retrospective measure therefore relates to circumstances before and during that fieldwork. It is not a measurement of the six months ending with the BBC’s October report.

The research covered UK adults aged 18 and over. Savanta says it used quotas for age, gender, region, ethnicity and social grade, then weighted the results to represent the UK adult population. The Hygiene Bank and In Kind Direct were the survey’s clients.

Savanta also boosted the low-income household sample to 1,516, defining low income as household earnings below £20,000 a year. That figure is part of the reported sample, not an additional group to add to the 3,042 participants. The boost was intended to ensure representation of people particularly likely to experience poverty.

A warning about hardship, with limits on the trend

The Hygiene Bank says difficulty accessing essentials can affect health, confidence, education, work and social participation. These are the charity’s stated concerns; the figures reported here do not establish how frequently those consequences occur or demonstrate their cause.

‘It feels like a problem that is worsening,’ Ashworth said. Her assessment conveys concern from the charity’s frontline work. Without a comparable earlier prevalence figure, the survey percentages cannot show the scale of a national change or establish an October surge.

The immediate response announced in the BBC report is an appeal for donations of essential products or money during National Hygiene Week, which ends on 11 October. The report does not quantify donation receipts, how many households the campaign will assist or whether the reported shortages have been resolved.