One by one, the women from the most deprived areas of the North tell their stories. Rhonda Weir from Belfast's Shankill Road says the credit crunch means a choice of electricity or heating for her family, and electricity wins.

"I tell the kids to put their pyjamas on over their clothes to keep warm in the evenings.

"I can only afford to heat one room in the house at a time now, I thought those days were long over," she says.

An Armagh woman says she was evicted from her home because she couldn't pay the rent. She and her two children survive on £170 a week and rising food and fuel prices have taken their toll. A woman from the Village area of south Belfast says increasing transport costs mean some families struggle to find the bus fares to send their children to school.

It's the annual general meeting of the Northern Ireland Anti-Poverty Network (NIAPN). Not one politician is present. If they did turn up, they might well be chased.

"People are angry because as the North faces an economic crisis, the Executive hasn't even met in four months," says Goretti Horgan, NIAPN chairperson.

"If the politicians were themselves facing the same difficulties as ordinary people – struggling to put food on the table and heat their homes – I think they'd somehow manage to lay aside their differences, meet, and agree a course of action."

So far there's no sign of compromise in the dispute over the transfer of policing and justice powers that lies behind the absence of Executive meetings. Lower incomes in the North compared to Britain mean the credit crunch has hit hard.

And food and energy prices have risen more substantially too. While electricity prices have increased by 15-20% in Britain, they're up 33% in the North.

"The Executive needs to meet to take action on fuel poverty," says Horgan.

"We were promised an anti-poverty strategy in the St Andrew's Agreement – absolutely nothing has happened. In terms of the housing situation, there are property developers just abandoning projects and walking off building sites. The Executive needs to meet and address this."

While the North's unemployment rate is still lower than that in Britain and the Republic, there are worrying signs.

The number of people unemployed last month rose by 1,200 from August. It was the biggest single month's increase for 22 years. Most of the jobs lost were in the construction industry.

The lack of Executive meetings means that large public sector building projects, which could alleviate such problems, cannot be brought forward.

Property prices in the North have fallen by 30% in recent months.

Last week, ICTU (Irish Congress of Trade Unions) assistant general secretary Peter Bunting was part of a delegation which met Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness to discuss the looming economic crisis.

"We need a stable government and a functioning executive," Bunting told the Sunday Tribune.

"Decisions must be made urgently and acted upon. Unemployment has gone up considerably in some areas. It's risen by 45% in Mid-Ulster over the last year – the highest rise of anywhere in the UK. It's up 37% in South Down and 36% in Upper Bann."

Bunting is also concerned that the employment situation could significantly worsen with any downturn in tourism. ICTU is asking the Executive to set up a 'Workers' Protection Fund' to ensure early payment of redundancy pay and other monies to workers laid off.

The North's low wages means that the rising cost of living cuts deeply, says Bunting. The average weekly wage here is £330, compared to the UK average of £375. Private sector workers earn only 83% of the UK average. One cushion for the North is the fact that so many employees (28%) work in the public sector.

While the Executive lacks tax-raising and certain other fiscal powers, most people believe there is still much it could do in terms of responding to the credit crunch. Belfastman Sean Crossan notes that local politicians were "queuing up" to be associated with the glitzy Victoria Square shopping centre which opened in March "but they'll be on the missing list when some of the shops close there and people lose their jobs".

His friend, Noel McGlade, says: "The politicians in London and Dublin are putting the economy to the top of the agenda but our crew are still caught up in their age-old squabbles.

"They just don't seem to care. We're on the brink of the hardest economic times since Thatcher and they still can't get their act together. They seem to forget that they're here to serve us. They're not fit to run the place – none of them."