The ’new poor’ in Ireland: ‘All that came in the door were solicitor’s letters’ 

As Barnardos launches its Children’s Budget, a client tells Noel Baker how life changed for her family as they became the ‘new poor’

Michelle, (not her real name), was nearly half the woman she used to be — literally.

An engaging woman who betrays no sign of the stress she and her family have been under in recent years through enormous financial pressure, she recalls how she lost almost five stone from what she calls “pure stress”.