Citizens Advice helps record number of people with thousands needing foodbanks | UK News
Helping slightly below 10,000 people every day, Citizens Advice assist 94,000 to entry a meals financial institution. This is a 178% enhance in the identical interval in 2020 and consists of the assist wanted for a record number of people in work.
By Megan Baynes, Social affairs and well being reporter @megbaynes
The number of people helped by Citizens Advice has hit a record excessive, with the charity calling it “our bleakest-ever start to the year”.
New evaluation exhibits it helped extra people between January and April than in the identical interval of some other 12 months on record.
There have been record highs on 70 completely different recommendation points, together with homelessness, meals financial institution referrals and debt.
The number of people needing disaster assist in simply these 4 months is already greater than in all of 2019 and nearly as excessive as in 2020.
Helping slightly below 10,000 people every day, Citizens Advice helps 94,000 to entry a meals financial institution. This is a 178% enhance in the identical interval in 2020 and consists of the assist for a considerable number of people in work.
As properly as serving to those that are homeless, the number of non-public renters dealing with an eviction concern in the course of the first 4 months of 2023 was 49% greater than the identical interval in 2020.
‘Living on empty’
Dame Clare Moriarty, chief government of Citizens Advice, stated: “The cost-of-living disaster is much from over. The truth we have skilled our bleakest-ever begin of the 12 months exhibits the federal government can’t afford to show their gaze away from the problems people are dealing with.
“Millions of people are doing every part they will nevertheless it’s nonetheless not sufficient. Too many people live on empty, merely unable to pay their payments and put meals on the desk. And whereas workers and volunteers in native places of work work tirelessly on daily basis to assist people, there’s solely a lot we will do.
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“We can see government support helps, but more is needed in the future for struggling households. For many, life is getting worse, not better.”
During the primary quarter of the 12 months, extra people confronted a invoice deficit – the place their revenue did not cowl their primary residing bills – than ever earlier than. For the primary time ever, greater than half (51.6%) of people looking for assist for debt from Citizens Advice have been on this place.
