Have you ever felt as though you were running at full speed but remaining on the same spot? This is how most Maltese families are feeling at the moment. The pressure caused by the ever-increasing cost of living is squeezing the life out of many households in whichever social class they belong.

Despite what the official price indices say, most people are finding it increasingly harder to cope with price rises when up to some years ago they used to complain about inflation, but generally absorbed such pressures. We all know that price indices, however useful they are for economists to measure inflation, do not capture the full spectrum of expenditure the different households incur.

Let me give some practical examples taken from everyday life experiences with which I have become familiar when visiting families. One family I met recently have to help their daughter cope with the mortgage repayments which have recently gone up because of the interest rate increases. Their daughter does not work because she has to take care of a young child and her husband works as an operator in a factory. They both fear that this factory may not be around for long and they do not want to fall back on their loan repayments.

Another young family send their two children to an independent private school paying thousand of liri every year in school fees and for books, uniforms, and extra curricular school activities. Both parents have white-collar jobs, and up to some time ago could afford to treat the family to an occasional Sunday lunch in a modest restaurant to unwind after a week’s hard work. They can no longer afford to do this after paying the school related expenses and other bills, especially the dreaded super-taxed water and electricity bills.

Yet another elderly family I met on one of my house visits worry about whether their pensions will last until the end of the month after having to pay for medical related expenses. The husband needs a cataract operation to recover his failing eyesight, but has been told he has to wait several months to have the surgery done in our public hospital.

He is hoping to have enough in his savings to have the surgery done in a private clinic. They rightly complain that they have been paying their national insurance contributions for over 40 years, but that the public health system has failed them at a time when they needed it most.

Another household has an unemployed father and two youngsters in their late teens. They left the school system early and are finding it next to impossible to find a job. When the daughter recently applied for a job in one of the larger supermarkets, they asked her whether she had at least an ordinary level school-leaving certificate. When she said she did not, she was turned down because the manager had a long waiting list of applicants with an A level standard of education.

There are the human stories inflation statistics do not capture, and yet we would be foolish to claim that such cases are rare. Politics should never be just about economic statistics and numbers. This government says that it is proud of having put the country’s finance on a solid basis, but glosses over the hardship our families in different strata of society are suffering because of the mismanagement of public funds, which in turn necessitates more taxes.

Cushioning the pressure caused by the cost of living will be a Labour government’s top priority after the next election.

Our commitment to this policy will be shown as from the first few weeks we are in office when we will honour our pledge to reduce the water and electricity surcharge by 50 per cent.

We will do this because we believe that our families deserve better than the raw deal they are getting form the present administration.

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Dr Mangion is deputy leader of the Opposition.