I remember the day my mother finally found me a gluten-free loaf of bread that was actually enjoyable to eat.
I practically cried happy tears, until she told me it cost her £9.
It was from a specialist gluten-free bakery, and sadly that eye-watering total meant it wouldn’t be something I could ever justify buying.
Instead, I settle for a £3.50 loaf of Warburtons gluten-free in my weekly shop, which is still a whole £2.20 more expensive than its gluten equivalent.
The price feels like a punishment for having to eat gluten-free, even though it’s a medical necessity for me – I’m coeliac, after all. It’s an autoimmune disease which means my body attacks itself if I have even a trace of gluten, and I’ve been free-from ever since being diagnosed seven years ago.
Despite this, retailers and manufacturers inflate the price drastically on gluten free products, which means my weekly shop is more expensive than a regular one – Coeliac UK estimates gluten free shopping adds 35% to the overall cost.
So you can imagine my excitement when I realised that pre-paid cash cards were being offered by the government to help cover the cost of these items.
That excitement was short-lived, however, when I read the fine print. Firstly, it’s only the Welsh government offering this financial support, and there are no whispers of it being introduced in other UK nations.
Secondly, the amount offered on these pre-paid cards (which look like regular bank cards) in the five year pilot scheme varied from person to person, and while they are regularly reviewed, one woman reportedly ended up receiving just £14 a month to help with the cost of gluten-free food.
Just two loaves of the gluten-free bread I buy cost half that – so it’s not exactly life-changing.
The cheapest gluten-free loaf of bread is 6.1 times more expensive than the cheapest gluten containing loaf, according to Coeliac UK.
Did I mention these loaves often come with giant air holes in them – and they’re much smaller, too? You spend more to get less – it’s infuriating.
The card is a great idea in theory, it just needs to have an amount of money on it that will actually cover your gluten free expenses. In an ideal world, brands wouldn’t charge a premium for a smaller product either, but that’s me living in dreamland.
Other food manufacturers should also make an effort to label their product as gluten free, even if it’s not specifically made with coeliacs in mind (as long as there’s no risk of contamination). I’m thinking about sausages which can sometimes be accidentally gluten free or crisps, so we don’t have to pay a surcharge for more expensive brands.
While I may be on an average UK salary, those who are lower earners or who are feeding gluten-free families are hit even harder.
People have suggested I cut out bread altogether, but if I do, my iron and calcium intake could decrease by 96% and 93% respectively. It’s just not healthy for me to do so.
These cash cards aren’t even guaranteed to be accepted either, with the Welsh Government saying that it will work in places that sell gluten-free food, like supermarkets, shops, pharmacies and online stores – but that’s not guaranteed, and gluten-free purchases have to be bought separately.
If you’re in-the-know about coeliac disease you might also say I should rely on the gluten-free NHS subscriptions instead.
England only has bread and flour available on prescription, and you still have to pay for the item if you aren’t entitled to free prescriptions. So you’ll pay one lump sum of £9.65 for multiple loaves of bread.
What’s more is coeliacs will be forced to choose between the new card scheme or their prescription. Having both is sadly not an option.
But in my experience, products provided on the prescriptions are simply usually cheaper brands – with bread, for example, that tastes like cardboard.
Prescriptions are also a postcode lottery: a number of Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG) including the CCG that covers my borough of Kingston Upon Thames, have withdrawn or restricted access to gluten-free food on prescription, which means many people have to buy all of the gluten-free products they eat.
My monthly spend on gluten-free food typically comes to a minimum of £20 and that’s purely for bread, pasta, a singular bag of chips for emergency meals, and two boxes of cereal.
That’s not including any breakfast bars, chocolate or biscuits – and if I forget lunch and have to buy a ready meal, it’s £4.50 a pop, minimum.
Supermarket sandwiches are almost always more expensive than their non-coeliac friendly alternatives too.
Even if pre-paid cards come to England, they aren’t going to make much of a dent of what gluten-free people have to fork out each month, just so they can eat food that won’t destroy their bodies.
So, this pre-paid cash card is sadly nothing more than a drop in the ocean when it comes to the struggles of coeliacs, and governments across the UK need to do more.
We need sufficient financial support, which I’m not hopeful will ever happen, but for me, around £30 a month would make it more bearable. And for those who live with others, the subsidy needs to be enough to cover gluten free products for the entire household, to keep contamination to a minimum.
I shouldn’t be financially penalised because I lost the genetic lottery, and neither should the 670,000 other diagnosed coeliacs in the UK, but we are dreading the food bill every month.
And £14 won’t change that.
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