BBC Radio 5 Live's Nicky Campbell is in Sunderland talking to people about the impact the cost of living has had on them.

Eleanor, who has a daughter with Down's Syndrome, spoke about the cutbacks she's had to make at home.

"We kind of looked at costs in the household and we did have to make some changes. We can't afford to just have the heating off because she has a history of getting quite ill."

Denise, manager of Citizens' Advice Sunderland, said last October some 323 used their drop-in services. But this October there has been 206 people using the services in the first week alone.

"Basically, people are looking for benefit checks to see if they can increase their income, because people simply can't afford the essentials, they can't afford the energy and they can't afford the food bills."

Amanda, a single mum, is worried about the cost of getting her son, who has autism spectrum disorder, to college. "My son doesn't get any money, he used to get DLA (disability living allowance) but he doesn't anymore. And I have to pay for a new car to drive him to Shields for college every day. I'm struggling. I really am."

The average house price in the UK rose by £36,000 to £296,000 in the year to August, the Office for National Statistics has revealed.

That represented a 13.6% increase, slowing down from 16% in July.

Overall, average house prices in England rose to £316,000 - a 14.3% increase.

In Wales, prices increased to £220,000 (14.6%), to £195,000 in Scotland (9.7%) and to £169,000 in Northern Ireland (9.6%).

Jennifer Meierhans
BBC business reporter

There's a lot of talk around pensions today so let's go back to basics.

Pensions are a way of saving money to use as income when you retire.

Many people take out workplace pensions which automatically move your money when you get paid every month and your employer can put a percentage towards your pension too.

Others have their own private pension pot that they pay into themselves.

These are different to the state pension which is paid for out of National Inurance contributions.

It is paid to men and women at the age of 66, but this is scheduled to rise.

• The “new” state pension is currently worth £185.15 a week.
• The basic state pension - for those who reached state pension age before April 2016 - is currently £141.85 a week

Pension credit is extra money to help with your living costs if you're over 66 and on a low income.

The state pension is the one being talked about today because the government had previously committed to raising it in line with September's inflation figure, which we now know is 10.1%.

But Prime Minister Liz Truss has indicated this is something she can no longer promise.

Former Conservative pensions minister Baroness Ros Altmann has said it would be "unforgivable" for the government to not increase state pensions in line with inflation.

Two weeks ago, Prime Minister Liz Truss said she was "committed" to the triple lock pledge, which would mean raising the state pension by September's 10.1% rate of inflation.

But her spokesman said yesterday she was "not making any commitments" on government spending.

Altmann said she was "absolutely stunned" to hear this given the surging cost of living.

"Of course, we need to be careful with public spending but we cannot move forward with cutting state pensions, telling pensioners one minute we are promising to protect them in the middle of the cost of living crisis, then we'll put that all at risk and say maybe we won't," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"There are millions of people in this country, frail, elderly people, particularly women, who have little or nothing other than the state pension to live on, who are extraordinarily worried now once again that the promises that were made to them by this government in the 2019 election and in the last few days are potentially going to be torn up.

"We have to be careful that we don't just try and short-change the elderly two years in a row in the middle of the cost of living crisis. That is unforgivable in my view."

Why are prices rising and when will they start to go down?

Our economics editor Faisal Islam has been answering some of the most searched questions on inflation.

NJ Convery
BBC News

Naomi Naylor from Durham is in her of third year of studying to be a paramedic at the University of Sunderland. She worries about the impact higher petrol costs will have on her finances.

Three-quarters of workers in the North East normally commute to work by car, so rising fuel prices can really hit personal finances.

“I commute in and out every day, it’s cheaper not paying for accomodation. Petrol is my biggest outlay, it’s costing me more than it used to.”

The 21-year old says there’s also competition for graduate paramedic jobs in the area which means some may need to look further afield for work.

Inflation rates are even higher than 10.1% for poorer households, as they spend more of their budgets on energy, a think tank has said.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies says that even with the energy price guarantee in October - which limits typical household bills to £2,500 a year - the poorest tenth of the population are expected to have faced an average inflation rate of 14% compared to 10% for the richest tenth.

And when it comes to social welfare, IFS research economist Heidi Karjalainen says that even if benefits are uprated in line with inflation - which has not been guaranteed by the government - they will still be lower than pre-pandemic levels.

"The inflation figures out today mean that - if the government uprates benefits with inflation, as is typical - most working-age benefits will go up by 10.1% in April," he said.

"But this would still leave their real value on course to be 6% below their pre-pandemic levels, equivalent to almost £500 per year for the average out-of-work claimant - and even this assumes that benefit recipients will continue to receive equivalent support for rising energy bills as they do under the [now shorter-lived] energy price guarantee.

"The situation for benefit recipients' living standards next April [when the current energy price support is due to end] could be even more difficult, depending on the design of the energy support package in place."

Image source, .

Carla is struggling with the rising cost of living.

Speaking to 5 Live's Nicky Campbell in Sunderland she says: "I've got a small heater and I tend to carry it round in every room I go into. I can't afford to put my heating on.

"I live on £250 per month. When you pay for broadband and then food and all the rest of it, it doesn't leave very much. I'm just very lucky that I've got friends that will take me out... It's just not good enough, you know.

"At the end of the day, what are we supposed to do? How are we supposed to do it?"

As price rises continue to bite into our budgets, many of us are trying to cut back on our weekly food shop.

As well as buying less or swapping to supermarket own brands we've been looking for other ideas of how to make our money go further.

We've also spoken to some money bloggers for their tried and tested tips.

Keep track of what you already have

Rosie suggests keeping a list of what’s in your cupboards in a notebook so you know what you have before you go shopping.

"There's no point in buying more jars of pasta sauce if you've already got five of them in the cupboard," she says.

Head for the reduced section first

Lynn recommends heading straight to the section to see what bargains may be available in the reduced section.

Then she suggests going straight to the frozen-foods section, and the canned-produce aisle, because,"frozen meat, fish and vegetables will almost always be cheaper than the fresh option," she says.

Make better use of your freezer

According to sustainability charity Wrap, the average household wastes around £700 every year , externalby throwing food away.

Lynn recommends that,"if things are getting close to their use-by date you should always try to freeze them… Things like milk and cheese, even fruit and vegetables, can all be frozen and kept for when you need them."

The government needs to tell people more about its revised energy support package for households and businesses "sooner rather than later," says Martin Sartorius from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).

"Inflation returned to its recent 40-year high and is expected to grow further in October as energy bills rise in line with the government's energy price guarantee," he said.

"While the chancellor's statement on Monday seems to have restored some fiscal stability, adjustments to the energy price guarantee suggest inflation may yet remain higher for longer.

Image source, .

NJ Convery
Reporting from Sunderland

Geoff Darby is a retired teacher from High Barnes in Sunderland. He says that high childcare costs and rising prices mean he and his wife have stopped working as foster carers to look after their grandchildren.

“We were fostering for 15 years but we’ve recently had to stop to help our own children look after their families.

“They’re all working but still can’t afford childcare. You’d think a family like my son’s would manage, with one earning a full time teachers wage and the other a part-time teacher, but they really struggle to pay the bills every month.”

The 70-year-old says costs are often higher for grandparents as they shift from working parents to them.

The cost of living is something we're all talking about, as we think about ways to cope with rising prices.

This morning, Nicky Campbell will present his BBC Radio 5 Live show from Sunderland’s The Fire Station to discuss how the crisis is impacting people’s lives locally. He'll also be exploring solutions with a 60-strong studio audience and a variety of special guests.

You can watch it live at 09:30 at the top of the this page, or watch TV coverage on the BBC News Channel.

The Resolution Foundation has warned the government against seeking quick savings to plug a gap in the UK's finances at a time when a “bleak outlook" means family incomes "will continue to "fall sharply" again next year.

The think tank’s senior economist Jack Leslie said surging food prices - which were one of the main drivers of the 10.1% rise in inflation announced today - look set to stay with us for some time.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has asked government departments to find "efficiencies" and has not committed to raising benefits or pensions in line with inflation.

“While the significant Treasury savings may look tempting in the context of its attempts to fill its fiscal hole, the cost to 10 million working-age families and almost every pensioner would be huge amid the deepest cost-of-living crisis for half a century," he said.

Leslie adds that the early end of the energy price guarantee in April will likely put upward pressure on consumer prices next year.

As we've been reporting it's not clear whether the government will decide to raise benefits by September's inflation figure, which is usually used to set increases for the following April.

As that figure is 10.1%, using it to set next year's benefit levels comes with a hefty price tag for the government - but not matching benefits to price rises would leave millions of us facing an even bigger challenge to make ends meet.

Here's how many of us rely on these payments.

It's something many of us are thinking about - how can we save more energy and reduce our bills?

We've been looking at where you’re most likely to be losing the most energy in your home and have talked to experts about simple solutions to save money and keep warm this winter.

Draught excluders

Shutting doors won’t stop warm air escaping your home. But adding a draught excluder - or even a rolled up old towel - could help to make things better (as the picture below shows).

Think about your windows

Badly-fitting windows or single panes of glass are another place heat is often lost. If you can't get windows replaced with double glazing, the Energy Saving Trust says it is worth getting some heavy curtains to help keep the heat in the room.

A thin plastic sheet to cover the windows would also help block draughts.

Focus the heat

The Eco-Experts blog recommends "heating the humans, not the building"- so perhaps don't keep the central heating on in rooms you're not in.

Age UK also suggests if you're cold, put on an extra layer - several thin layers of clothing will keep you warmer than one thick layer, as the layers trap warm air between them.

Read more tips here.

Image source, .

One of the things we've been talking about today is the so-called triple lock on pensions. But what does the term mean?

Under the government pledge, state pensions are increased each April by whichever is the highest of three things: inflation (the previous September's figure), wages, or 2.5%.

As we've been reporting, September's inflation figure, announced today, is 10.1% and therefore clearly by far the largest of the three.

Two weeks ago, Prime Minister Liz Truss said she was "committed" to the triple lock.

But her spokesman now says she is "not making any commitments" on government spending.

Disability benefits such as the personal independence payment, as well as carer's allowance, are among the payments that are legally required to go up in line with inflation.

But debate still surrounds the government's position on whether the biggest working-age benefits will rise in line with prices, or follow the lower increase in wages.

They have not gone up at the same rate as inflation for nine out of the past 12 years. Included in those is universal credit which is claimed by 5.7 million people.

NJ Convery
Reporting from Sunderland

Cristina Pana lives in Grindon, Sunderland, with her husband and two young children. Right now she’s a full-time parent but she’d like to return to her career in IT.

Cristina says the combination of the rising cost of living and high childcare costs means many like her are having to choose between parenting and work.

“Everything is going up - energy and food is really expensive. It’s hard as my husband is the only one working. I want to send my daughter to a nursery but we can’t afford that at the moment.”

Chatting to us while chasing her two-year old around a local playgroup, the 31-year old explained that if she went back to full-time work the family could end up worse off - as her salary would be swallowed up in nursery fees and other childcare costs.

“We have child benefit but it’s not that much. For my second it’s only £15 which barely covers the cost of nappies,” she adds.

“Everything is squeezed, so by next year I’ll have to try and find part-time work”.

More now from Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, who said any announcement on whether the government will retain the so-called triple-lock on pensions will not come until the chancellor makes his financial statement on 31 October.

Under the commitment, pensions rise by whatever is higher: inflation, average earnings or 2.5%.

It was a 2019 Conservative manifesto pledge, but the government has signalled the commitment could be dropped as it seeks to plug a gap in the country's finances.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast a little earlier, Cleverly said: "The chancellor will be making a statement in just over a week's time, where he will set out all the plans for taxation and expenditure and government budgets.

"By convention, ministers do not pre-announce elements of the budget, so as frustrating as it is... we have to wait for the formal announcement by the chancellor in just over a week's time."

Earlier on the programme, Labour's shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said Labour was committed to the triple-lock, "no ifs, no buts".

He also said benefits should be uprated in line with inflation, something the government has yet to make a decision on.

Image source, Reuters

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has acknowledged that the inflation figures are "concerning" for people across the country.

He says the figure of 10.1% is in the range the government was expecting, adding that the government's energy price support will have helped to lower inflation overall.

Under the energy price guarantee - made in response to soaring energy prices - a typical annual household bill will be limited to £2,500 until April.

"I think the response to the energy price increases that we brought out in the statement a few weeks ago will have helped to suppress some of that inflation, but of course it is still something which is concerning," Cleverly tells the BBC.

He adds that global factors - such as the war in Ukraine - have played a part in the rise in inflation.

"We want to make sure that we take action to try and limit the rate of inflation.

"That's why it's so very important that we protect people in businesses from those energy price rises, but we also try and address some of the core drivers of inflation, including the war in Ukraine, which has pushed up energy prices, and that's had a knock-on effect for the prices in so many people's baskets."

As we all face soaring prices, BBC News is talking to people across the UK about how they are coping with the financial pressures and providing support and advice on saving money from our experts.

Today we’re reporting from Sunderland in north-east England. Unemployment levels are higher here compared to the rest of the UK and workers earn less than people in other parts of the country.

We’ll be hearing from households, businesses and families about how the rise in living costs is affecting them.

You’ll be able to follow this across the BBC - whether that’s here on the website, on BBC Breakfast and the News Channel, or on Radio 5 Live and Radio 1’s Newsbeat.

Later we’ll bring you coverage of a special programme hosted by Nicky Campbell exploring issues and solutions - you’ll be able to watch that at the top of this page.