Some 3.2m adults struggle to afford basic hygiene products leading to shame and exclusion, charity says.
People's inability to afford essential hygiene products is leaving many too ashamed to go to work, a charity says.suggests 3.2 million UK adults are affected by so-called hygiene poverty - with 12% saying they have avoided facing colleagues as a result.
The charity began in 2018 after founder Lizzy Hall saw the Ken Loach-directed film I, Daniel Blake, which features a scene where a struggling single mother is caught shoplifting sanitary products. The charity says a survey it carried out with nearly 2,200 people, in partnership with polling company YouGov, suggests the numbers impacted by hygiene poverty equated to 6% of all UK adults, rising to 13% from lower-income households and 21% of disabled people.
She also suffers bouts of acne from being unable to wash her face and feels the need to keep a distance from people for fear that she smells.